Man in a Shed: Shedworker

Man in a Shed (@Man_in_a_Shed) works in software and engineering in his garden office shed (pictured above and below), but also writes a political blog under the appealing pseudonym, Man in a Shed. Below, he talks us through his shedlife:

"I want to write from the perspective of just being an ordinary man, rather than being a personality (the play on the title is with the man on the Clapham omnibus). The blog was just an experiment based on an article in the computing press, and I was amazed that anyone else read it and that lots of other people did the same thing. It now eats too much of my time. I'm keeping away from Facebook for that reason.

"Why have a shed to work, exercise, study and hang out in ? Well about five years ago I found myself away from home over the weekend in a hotel room for the first time since we had started a family. I suddenly realised I could hear myself think again for the first time in years, and that I really missed that from before family and marriage. In short I needed somewhere to hang out, a sort of wooden cave in the "Men are from Mars Women are from Venus" model.

"It has worked out really well and I'm happy to recommend it. Though it has to be said my wife took quite a bit of stick from the other women - mostly on the lines of "You let him get away with having that!". They were all worried their husbands would want a bolt hole from their loving families also. I know that sounds bad, but I'm the sort of man who needs some periods of peace and quiet, and I don't think I'm the only one.

"More recently I've started working for myself, which I do whereever my laptop is placed, often in the shed, but not always. The shed has many uses, but none of them are for storing my wife's stuff, gardening (we have another shed for that). I have power and heating and an internet cable - that squirrels recently nibbled through - run down here. I only have to return to the house for coffee and the call of nature."

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