Fictional sheds - Notes from an exhibition

There's no doubt that shed-lit is on the up. There's Pauline Rowson of course, Mark Haddon's recent offering, and now there's also the Richard & Judy pick Notes from an exhibition by Patrick Gale. It's a story of Rachel, a painter, and her Quaker family in Cornwall (that doesn't really do it justice, it's an excellent read) and naturally Rachel has a studio, latterly in an attic, but early on in a converted outbuilding which had once been a laundry and a greenhouse but also a general dumping ground. Here's how it's transformed:

"Jack helped her clear it out and sweep away decades of cobwebs. They spent two days sloshing its walls with whitewash, cleaned the window with vinegar, moved back in the decrepit chaise longue they had been forced to put out for the dustmen and suddenly she had a studio almost better than his purpose-built one on the edge of Newlyn."

Fictional sheds - Lionboy

Lionboy by Zizou Corder is a great children's novel about a young boy called Charlie Ashanti who can talk to cats (of all sizes). Charlie gets caught up in an international web of intrigue after his scientist parents are kidnapped. His mother has a laboratory in the garden and here's how it is described in the book.

"He loved the lab too. Because it was in a separate shed in the backyard, it had always seemed like a different world. Pushing open the door he now got a waft of the smell of it: somewhere between a cake baking, old books, sweet strong incense, and underneath it all the hard cold smell of science. It looked like it smelt. The walls were old and panelled with well-polished dark wood. The benches to the left were gleaming steel with glass cupboards, VDU screens and instruments of the most precise and modern specifications...Along the back wall were stacked shelf upon shelf of books - ancient leatherbound tomes, colourful paperbacks, smart-looking hardbacks, parchments laid out flat, and scrolls rolled tight and piled carefully...It seemed to Charlie that all the knowledge in the world, past and present, lived in his mother's laboratory, and if it didn't, you could find out here where it did live."

Shepherd's Hut Tuesday - Gabriel Oak

Gabriel Oak's shepherd's hut in Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd is probably the most famous shed in fiction. Here's how we first meet it in Chapter 2:

"The hut stood on little wheels, which raised its floor about a foot from the ground. Such shepherds' huts are dragged into the fields when the lambing season comes on, to shelter the shepherd in his enforced nightly attendance."

He then brings a new-born lamb inside and has a nap while Hardy describes the interior:

"The inside of the hut, as it now presented itself, was cosy and alluring, and the scarlet handful of fire in addition to the candle, reflecting its own genial colour upon whatever it could reach, flung associations of enjoyment even over utensils and tools. In the corner stood the sheep-crook, and along a shelf at one side were ranged bottles and canisters of the simple preparations pertaining to ovine surgery and physic; spirits of wine, turpentine, tar, magnesia, ginger, and castor-oil being the chief. On a triangular shelf across the corner stood bread, bacon, cheese, and a cup for ale or cider, which was supplied from a flagon beneath. Beside the provisions lay the flute, whose notes had lately been called forth by the lonely watcher to beguile a tedious hour. The house was ventilated by two round holes, like the lights of a ship's cabin, with wood slides."

In the following chapter, he forgets to leave the sides open and nearly suffocates himself with the stove still burning inside. He is rescued by Bathsheba.

"It was not exactly the fault of the hut," she observed in a tone which showed her to be that novelty among women -- one who finished a thought before beginning the sentence which was to convey it. "You should, I think, have considered, and not have been so foolish as to leave the slides closed."

Fictional sheds - Yoda's hut

We start a new occasional series today looking at fictional sheds with Yoda's hut from Star Wars. According to the marvellously-titled Wookieepedia where you can find a huge amount of extra detail:

"Yoda's hut was a dwelling made by Yoda during his self-imposed exile on Dagobah. The hut was simple, constructed of mud, but utilized his escape pod energy source. Despite this, Yoda had to draw upon the Force at all times just to hold it together. Yoda salvaged most of the parts from his escape pod to build this hut. He utilized deck grating for a solid foundation, illumination panels for lighting, and thrust nozzles for shaping his windows and doorway. He then packed mud from around the area to form the outer "shell" of his home. Then, the only matter that remained to be built was the interior."

Apparently, the first blueprint of the hut was more like a mosque with stained glass windows. This hut was built inside a tree, and after Yoda died it almost disintegrated without his Force to hold it together (not unlike some other sheds I know).