I have long been interested in landscape history, and when younger and more robust I used to do much tramping of the English landscape in search of ancient field systems, drove roads, indications of prehistoric settlement.

Quote by Penelope Lively

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Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to...

Equally, we require a collective past - hence the endless reinterpretations of history, frequently to...

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance.

We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance.

The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social...

The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social...

All history, of course, is the history of wars

All history, of course, is the history of wars

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the...

We read Greek and Norse mythology until it came out of our ears. And the...

I'm not an historian but I can get interested - obsessively interested - with any...

I'm not an historian but I can get interested - obsessively interested - with any...

There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest...

There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest...

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have...

I didn't think I had anything particular to say, but I thought I might have...

Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they...

Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they...

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.

The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an...

The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an...

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of...

It seems to me that everything that happens to us is a disconcerting mix of...

I didn't write anything until I was well over 30.

I didn't write anything until I was well over 30.

Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I...

Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I...

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

You learn a lot, writing fiction.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

I didn't want it to be a book that made pronouncements.

I do like to embed a fictional character firmly in an occupation.

I do like to embed a fictional character firmly in an occupation.

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the...

The Photograph is concerned with the power that the past has to interfere with the...

I'm now an agnostic but I grew up on the King James version, which I'm...

I'm now an agnostic but I grew up on the King James version, which I'm...

All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to...

All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to...