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I recently visited the Boathouse in Laugharne. I'd been there before, and peered into Dylan Thomas' Writing Shed, but this time I was with my friend, the artist Julia Griffiths Jones http://www.juliagriffithsjones.co.uk, and she'd been inside! She had been allowed to go into the shed to draw. When she showed me the drawings that she had made there, and the photographs that she had taken, I must admit to being gripped by a strange excitement and considerable envy. There is something about the place where a writer works that exerts a peculiar fascination. Just to see what he or she had on the desk by way of distraction or because a particular object was special in some way; to see the pictures pinned up on the wall; the view, or lack of it from the window. These things serve to bring alive some of the process of mind that produced the work that one admires.
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| In Dylan Thomas' writing shed - Julia Griffiths-Jones |
I had come to love the words of them. The words alone. What the words stood for was of a very secondary importance.
17 Comments on Sheds - Celia Rees, last added: 5/17/2012
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17 Comments on Sheds - Celia Rees, last added: 5/17/2012
I have a shed - brick built, with a flat, leaking concrete roof, full of spiders and junk. I shan't be cleaning it out. And I have a room of my own - so full of clutter I'm resistant to tidying that I've been forced out. I only use it when I need the printer. I write on my laptop in a corner of the sofa. I don't have any shed-envy - but then, I don't have to share my house. I can imagine there would be trouble and strife if I did.
What an enjoyable and beautifully illustrated piece. Francis is now left with a completely bare concrete base - a tabula rasa if eve I saw one. Meanwhile we have discovered (or been discovered by) the website shedworking which you may well wish to visit yourself - eye-candy for shedfreaks. Personally I plan to return to my attic, as soon as F vacates. http://www.shedworking.co.uk/2012/05/francis-wheens-shed-disaster.html
Oh I would love a shed - or even just a real space of my own. I actually have a whole working life in a corner of my bedroom. It is NOT a good idea but there is nowhere else.
I do think though that one should keep a copy of things in a safe and separate place.
This is going to fuel your shed-envy, Celia, but.... This very apt for me at the moment, since at this VERY minute I am waiting for an electrician to arrive to connect electricity to my glorious shed which was installed last week. It's hyper-insulated, incredibly light (east and south facing walls are glass) and all i can see from it are trees and plants (currently rhodies and azaleas in full flower) and I can't wait to write in it! Mostly I am looking for to actually *going* to work, like a proper person.
This is a wonderful post and it was lovely to see all those sheds. Dylan's is superb and I love your artist pal's pictures of it. I have no shed envy whatsoever, though they are super! Happy to work in my study at home. A back bedroom looking out on to the garden. My desk faces the wall, not the window and I have bookshelves all around me and knick nacks of various kinds on the desk. I sometimes move my laptop to the kitchen but not often. Particularly sad to think of poor Francis Wheen, whom I know a little. That is a disaster of huge proportions and I can't begin to think how I'd feel if all my books etc went up in smoke. YOUR space, Celia, looks very good to me! And the main thing is: it produces your work, so you have no complaints! Nor should any other Sassie...if it ain't broke, etc.
Yes, I try to visit every time I am in Wales, I love the crumpled pieces of paper on the floor as though he has just left.
Excellent piece of writing. I have added it to the Dylan Thomas Boathouse facebook page, linked below. Hope that's ok! Good to meet you the other week. Jon
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dylan-Thomas-Boathouse-Tea-Room/227795500585636
Loved this! Wonderful all those pictures of sheds. I am now suffering from a serious case of shed envy... a condition probably suffered only by writers and gardeners.
A lovely post - and I do like Julia Griffitht-Jones' drawings! All this has made me nostalgic for my own rather lovely ex-shed. I would like to think that someone else will use it for writing one day. Though I must say there are advantages to being in the house - especially in freezing weather!
Nicola has fuelled my shed envy and I'm sorry if I triggered a bout of nostalgia, Linda. I'm so excited about the Boathouse having it's own Facebook Page - I've gone off and liked it straight away, I'm glad you liked the piece, Jon. Thanks for the inspiration and the bara brith. Everyone who has heard of Francis' shed disaster, Julia, is full of sorrow and sympathy. Only writers, or artists can know what a loss it must have been. I know it doesn't really matter where we write, but to lose ones things, one's books, above all, one's work must be devastating.
I must be very greedy because I now have shed envy even though I have a delightful study with an extensive attached roof garden overlooking garden and field for working on sunny days. Table and wifi on the roof, too. But I'd still like a Dahlesque shed.
I once saw a wonderful gypsy-style caravan with wood-burning stove that you could have installed in the garden as an office and wanted it desperately, but it was £10,000 and really very unnecessary...
I must be very greedy because I now have shed envy even though I have a delightful study with an extensive attached roof garden overlooking garden and field for working on sunny days. Table and wifi on the roof, too. But I'd still like a Dahlesque shed.
I once saw a wonderful gypsy-style caravan with wood-burning stove that you could have installed in the garden as an office and wanted it desperately, but it was £10,000 and really very unnecessary...
I have a shed/summerhouse which I use sometimes, but will be able to use much more once all my children are at school... just isn't possible to lock myself away in there with 3 and 2 year olds in tow :)
Lovely post, Celia.
It is fascinating to see other people's sheds and the things they keep in them to surround them when they are writing.
I love my shed. It's called 'Tuscany' and it is amazing how different it feels being inside the shed rather than writing anywhere else. There is a sense of quiet that makes it easy to write, even when the writing is being difficult!
You can see it on a previous ABBA blog here http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/collaborating-or-flying-solo-linda.html
Bit late - but this is such a lovely post, Celia. I love all the shed pics, and love thinking of Dylan Thomas's shed filled with lists of his words. WOW!
I do suffer a little bit from shed envy. There's something so romantic about the idea. However, I have a beautiful attic room with views of the sea for my study, and I adore it so probably wouldn't swap!
Oh, no! I've got attic envy now! Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. It's fascinating to hear about where others write and impossible not to envy some people, but ultimately it's what gets written that matters.