| Rose Tremain
I've got the study I've always longed for. It looks out onto a big sloping lawn, and as soon as I go into it in the morning, it just takes me in. I like to start the day slowly, giving external attention to breakfast but some internal attention to the writing day ahead. I'm at my desk by ten. I like to be alone then and I like silence. I hate winter. My study has to be at least 70 degrees or I can't concentrate. I write in longhand with Berol Mirado pencils on recycled paper. I'm aware of the need to be fit and well so I eat conscientiously at lunchtime. I stop at
5.30, do exactly 35 minutes of yoga,
it's warm, I work in a summerhouse I built, which has a view of the garden. If it's very cold, I shut myself into the loft. I have to confess I work better there. It's where the word processor lives, although I like to work with pencil and exercise book first, to tease ideas out. The evenings are for the box. I love it. I video old films. That's my treat.
Jilly Cooper
When I'm on a book, I'll work all day, every day. I start about ten, and I'll go on and on, until eight or nine. There's nothing in the middle except a dog walk and a chat to the horses. There's not even any food really because I'm always trying to lose weight. The room where I work is serious chaos. The room faces south, so my typist Monica and I trek about to whichever surface has no sun and the least mess. I keep longhand notebooks of all the events and characters in the current book and a file for each chapter. If Leo's here, it's great, because he'll usually cook supper. By then I'm only fit to slump in front of the telly.
Susan Hill
When I was single, I had a lovely long morning that began at about eight,
with nobody to think about but me. There's no doubt it's harder now, having got up at 6.30 and done the school run, and having one's head seething with domestic things. You have to guard against that dangerous, restless time when you return home and can get waylaid so easily. I'm working in a Portakabin in the garden while we convert a barn into my study. I take coffee in there and sit quietly, thinking myself down into the book again. I have little breaks for more
| put on some Mozart or Haydn, and play around with food, which is a wonderful way of engaging other senses than the ones I use all day.
Patrick Gale
One of the joys of being a writer is that you don't have to have a routine, but when I've got a book on the boil I really don't do anything else. My brain only works until lunchtime and food is vital to keep me going: digestive biscuits are a must and I do confess to the odd chocolate crisis. I work until I'm really hungry and then I take the dog out to thrash out any problems. After lunch, I'll read - mostly novels by dead authors so as not to get too demoralized. If
coffee, but this doesn't interfere with concentration at all nor does my stunning view. I stop at lunchtime and that's it really. I use jumbo economy pads and write in longhand. I prefer pencil. I used to type the manuscript myself but then I found a wonderful lady who can read my writing. I'm useless with machines.
Julian Barnes
When I get to my desk at about ten, I find I don't very much want to be there. Luckily this feeling passes. My desk is in a light, upstairs room painted Chinese yellow. There are two prunus trees outside, which bullfinches seem to like, and once I saw a jay. I'm fairly easily distracted, and will roam off to get mugs of coffee, biscuits and raisins, and wait hopefully by the letter box for the postman. The best creative time is from ten to one. I work on a big black electric typewriter. I don't want a word processor. When I'm working on a novel, I'll put in a seven-day week. Cooking's helpful if I'm stuck. I don't really reward myself at the end of a good day. I'm just relieved to feel less guilty.
Sir Fitzroy Maclean
I wrote Eastern Approaches 45 years ago, and I've had a book on the go ever since. I travel all the time and I get on with writing wherever I am, buses, helicopters, airports, anywhere. In 1946, in America, I bought a portable typewriter but when I'd typed 150,000 words on it, I thought, 'Never again.' I like yellow spiral-backed pads and those floating ball pens. My ideal is to write in the library, or in my specially insulated room at home in Scotland, or at the kitchen table in London, sustaining myself with a huge pot of China tea. If I'm travelling, I take a flask for tea - it's vital. I like regular meals and I'm inclined to sleep after lunch. My book is my first thought every day, and it's my escape from real life. I don't need a reward at the end of a day. The writing is a prize in itself.
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