that there's a strong chance that just as the social changes towards the end of the 50s rather passed Patricia by, so, too, she might have chosen to ignore the possibilities offered by 1960s swinging London, and her story might well have been the same. I like a firm resolution, not necessarily a "happy ever after" ending. Do you plot your stories or do you write "by the seat of your pants"? It's a combination.  I know when I start a novel where I'm going, but I don't know all of the little details (for want of a better word) that I'll include on the way.  Having said that, the extent to which I plot in advance varies according to the novel. With The Road Back , the structure of life in a Ladakhi village gave me the framework for the story of Kalden. But with A Bargain Struck , I started with a completely empty sheet, and I had to plot in advance more than I've ever done for any other novel. From a technique point of view, is it easier writing stories set in the past? Have you found any special things to be aware of, apart from the obvious ones of technology, dress and manners? Yes, language. I have a real dislike of being jarred out of an historic period by a narrative voice full of modern idiom, or by characters speaking with a vocabulary and idiom that didn't exist at the time at which they were