You know when you take the paint off an old canvas and you discover that something's been painted underneath it? That's what I feel like - that part of the old is coming through the new.

Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music.

One of the things that has always motivated me to write is the desire to get it out and look at it in an objective way, so that it doesn't cause me any serious pain by staying inside.

You usually can't tell what's inspiring until you look back on it.

War does horrible things to human beings, to societies. It brings out the best, but most often the worst, in our human nature.

I think, technically, we have won the war because people are going back into their neighbourhoods. Boko Haram as an organised fighting force - I assure you that we have dealt with them.

You will find peace and happiness if you will live the gospel.

I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services.