see the writing rooms of diana athill and a.s. byatt and seamus heaney!

years ago in the beijing modern literature museum i saw the libraries and studies of the literati. and and now, here, a collection of writers' rooms at the guardian books page.

martin amis's detached box (with the sunroof) i quite like, though not the rather unsentimental commentary. russell hoban's room horrifies me vaguely, though for a person who had been in and out of nohrnberg's office for four years you might well say i was overreacting; he hasn't got a patch on n. athill's surprised me (because, you see, i looked for a vase of flowers right away - she says somewhere that even when she was broke she had to have flowers - so where were these flowers, when i'd always imagined her study a hothouse of blooms?) antonia fraser's is the only one with signficant presence of flowers (she grew the amaryllis herself, she says) but the chintz is ghastly. al kennedy's, red and startling - would be hard to write in i'm sure. sarah waters' upsets me - the carpet, the venetian blinds, the filing cabinet, swivel chair, and how awfully narrow it is. on the whole i don't like the ones that resemble offices - graham swift's, for instance, but the cosy parlour types put me off as well - too fussy, too homely. though i quite like david lodge's - not quite office, more like a study, and with the garden view. geoff dyers, edna o brien or margaret drabble also do the cosy + workish well. seamus heaney's attic is pleasing, though not quite what i'd have imagined for him before this. actually a large number of the featured writers have attic rooms, and manage to arrange their furniture to fit under the sloping beams. though they're not starving or wretched the idea of a garret probably still appeals.

(this reminds me of a conversation with von some time ago. he wanted to go to sweden to make wooden bowls. i said he ought to find a garret and starve for a bit, and wait till a patron comes along and is enthralled by his art and asks but why is this man in the gutter? and raise him up, &c. grants, woman, have you not heard of grants, he shakes his head, and goes off to ask some foundations for one.)

my dream writing room should have to be homely enough, and with a bed. no, no, i couldn't write in a room without a bed, there's nothing like taking the laptop and a few reference books into bed with you, you know. (one of the featured rooms has a bed, but it's not for working on, only resting between work.)

also diana athill is quoted saying "Something that has always surprised me about other people's work habits is how often they chose to have their desks by a window looking onto an agreeable view. For me that would be fatal. I can shut out some distractions when working, but not the temptation to watch what's going on out of doors." now what surprised me is not that so many work in rooms with windows, but that not one of them has a window seat. me i would love the window seats, but i never bother with windows, as i mostly write at night, and find sunlight bothersome (if you write by sunlight you're always getting your shadow in the way, or the light in your eye.) but i love being curled up on my window seats, half leaning into the curtains, feeling the cold of glass through the fabric on a wintry night, and the faint snow-muffled noise of the street, and a sharp sense of unseen darkness without.