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A room of one’s own

JA July 16

According to Virginia Woolf, money and a room of one’s own were essential to a woman if she wanted to write fiction. According to Will Self, millions of tiny little yellow and orange post-it notes are also. The following images are taken from a slideshow of seventy-one photos, shot by Phil Grey, giving a 360 degree view of the British novelist’s study.

Writer’s rooms are an ongoing source of interest for readers (again the whole ‘getting into the headspace of author X’ thing). The Guardian have been doing a series on this for a while, and even the BBC have put their two cents in. Most of these photos end up looking like variations of each other – wooden desk, white cold English light, obligatory bookshelf, non-obligatory reclining couch, typewriter, Mac, pen and paper etc. What I like about Self’s room is the artful chaos – it’s dark and almost gloomy (with a few strategically placed light bulbs), cramped with paper, postcards, books, tiny coffee cups and ashtrays. And there are literally hundreds of post-it notes everywhere: on the walls, the desk, the shelves, the door, the armchair and even the lampshade.

If you’re interested in seeing all seventy-one photos, go here.

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