Rooms of Their Own

The perennial question asked of all authors is: How do you write? What do they require of their room or desk? Do they have favourite pens, paper, or typewriters? And have they found the perfect daily routine to channel their creativity?

Crossing centuries, continents, and genres, Alex Johnson has pooled 50 of the best writers and transports you to the heart of their writing rooms — from attics and studies to billiard rooms and bathtubs.

Discover the ins and outs of how each great writer penned their famous texts, and the routines and habits they perfected. Meet authors who rely on silence and seclusion and others who need people, music, and whisky. Meet those who travel halfway across the world to a luxury writing retreat, and others who just need an empty shed at the bottom of the garden. Some are particular about pencils, inks, paper, and typewriters, and others will scribble on anything — including the furniture. But whether they write in the library or in cars, under trees, on private islands, in hotel rooms, or towers — each of these stories confirms that there is no best way to write.

From James Baldwin, writing in the small hours of the morning in his Paris apartment, to DH Lawrence writing at the foot of a towering Ponderosa pine tree, to the Brontë sisters managing in a crowded co-working space, Rooms of Their Own takes us into the lives of some of history's greatest writers, with each writing space illustrated in evocative watercolour.

In looking at the working lives of our favourite authors, bibliophiles will be transported to other worlds, aspiring writers will find inspiration, and literature fans will gain deeper insight into their most-loved authors.