"What’s insane about Nora Ephron is that her journalism is as incisive as her comedy is sharp; her recipes as delicious as her profiles astute; her love of romantic comedies as pure as her screenplays heartwarming. She is a shrewd, funny, charming companion."

"I discovered Flipper when I was in Boston. I was in a record shop and I saw a sleeve on the wall - one of those more expensive ones that still wasn't very expensive. But there's something about the cover that made it seem along the lines of the DIY things I'm really into. So I bought it without hearing it and it was brilliant. It was like a kind of insane... well Public Image Ltd are already insane. But it was like an even more insane Public Image Ltd, with an amazing groove and totally demented vocals. I really got into them with that record and the first one - Album – Generic Flipper - is also brilliant. That's another example of a really bad sleeve actually... it's pretty awful. The fish logo, worn by Kurt Cobain or not, is pretty terrible. With Flipper it makes sense though. It's a bit like the Jesus Lizard, where they're trying deliberately to piss you off."

"I love all of Sarah Waters’ historical fiction but this is my favorite novel, set during and after WWII. It starts slow but picks up insane momentum, using reverse narration to follow the characters backward in time to the explosive wartime scenes that shaped them."