Many people have compared me to the Victorian adventure writer, Rider Haggard. I accept that as a compliment. As a boy growing up in Central Africa I read all Haggard's African novels.

I read all of Rider Haggard's books. For me he had the romance of Africa with a little bit of mysticism. I'm delighted to be looked on as his heir and be categorised as an adventure novelist because that's exactly what I am.

I work on my novels wherever I have a PC, and I have four or five places around the world where I do have a PC. These days you can just slip a little flash drive into your top pocket, fly for 12 hours, come to another place, plug it into a computer and you are away again.

I have never had too much trouble for creative ideas to spring up in my mind.

You can have small moments of happiness in life. You certainly can't expect years and years of it.

I try to treat all the money I'm making like it's the last time I'm going to make it.

If we made the 'Batman' games more realistic, you'd have to be Bruce Wayne for half the game, counting his money and dating supermodels.

Money, titles, belts - you're not going to take with you when you die. History stays forever. That's why I decided to go for history.