'At one time when I had writer's block I thought, 'If I had a real desk I could write', so I went to a Chinese carpenter who made me a desk of teak log, which I still have.''



Who do you think this is?

Sheila

Aha! I won't spoil it for others.

A bit extreme, though, isn't it? Must have cost a small fortune and not exactly environmentally sound these days.

Wasn't it Stephen King who bough a huge desk with his firs large royalty cheque, and then found he couldn't write at it, so it sat in the corner of the room (or maybe taking up one half of the room!) gathering dust.

As for writers block, I doubt a desk would help, unless it was magically covered with the full text of my WIP and I could just read it off as I typed.

- NaomiM

Some writer's block - eighteen books in fourteen years!

Maybe the desk just fitted in with what he says earlier:

'I needed space both as a person and as a writer.'

Mind you, he had his methods:

''Dad's study', as it was called, was on the top floor, away from the family, where I wasn't interrupted.'

The bit about the marriage break-up made me laugh, too:

'Basically, Anne said to me: 'Go find your smile: find your bliss'

I can just pictute the scene:

A: You pretentious bastard, I've had it up to here with your whinging about writer's block and the children asking about the strange man in the attic. You can bugger off and take that effing Chinese monstrosity with you!'

X: Ah, you mean I should find my smile; find my bliss?

(Sound of unprintable expletives and breaking plates)

Sheila

Lol! Shelia, yes, when you put it like that I imagine it required quite a bit of creative writing.

Going by the luvvie-style language, he'd just been spending too much time with those actor neighbours he mentioned, who 'seemed to do something interesting in a discreet sort of way'. Since when was acting 'discreet?'

You must have seen the even funnier article in the same source, written by the journalist who went to stay overnight in a 'hardcore Welsh commune'? Another one to cut out and keep, and it too has comic illustrations.

The bit about the harp playing ('I just express myself better this way' made me wonder why these people agree to sound like idiots in a well-known paper. Is it just for the money? Or do they just get whatever they can make on the side - like jipping him out of £40 for petrol for a 15 minute journey?

Mind, I think the editor told this Giles person to really trash the harpist because she goes completely against philosophy of the publication- the sort of person who gets it a bad name, so to speak.

Sheila