Joanne Harris: Shedvent

One of the most famous current shedworkers, novelist Joanne Harris, is running an excellent daily series on Twitter this month which she's calling Shedvent. Do click along and see what's behind each door. Here's today's:

Today's #Shedvent present is a competition! Send me your favourite seasonal photograph of one of my books, and the winner will receive a coveted proof copy of THE STRAWBERRY THIEF.
Just send your pic, your name and address to enquiries@joanne-harris.co.uk before December 30th...

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 6, 2018

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Join Joanne Harris today for a tour of her shed

The Society of Authors is running a special one-off event at 4pm today (Thursday) at which novelist Joanne Harris (perhaps best known for book Chocolat) will host a 45-minute online video session to talk about how she works, what she's working on now, and give a tour of her garden office. It will end with a Q&A from the audience (if you want to send questions in advance email sjackson@societyofauthors.org with ‘Afternoon Tea with Joanne Harris – Question’ in the subject line).

This event is free but you need to click onto the special Society of Authors link here and then fill in your details after which they'll email you with a link to join.

If you can't make it or just want a bit of background detail, we interviewed Joanne exclusively for Shedworking a few years ago.

PSA from @Joannechocolat: "I'm also eating more toast than normal." #AuthorVoices

Join us for Afternoon Tea with @Joannechocolat this Thursday @ 4pm ☕ > https://t.co/VOaEWvJEEc #SoAatHome pic.twitter.com/8f0Ua1MdsG

— Society of Authors (@Soc_of_Authors) April 20, 2020

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Exclusive: interview with shedworking author Joanne Harris

Writer Joanne Harris (whose hobbies in Who's Who include "quiet subversion of the system") is the author of numerous hugely popular novels including Chocolat, blueeyedboy and Five Quarters of the Orange as well as a book of short stories and various cookbooks. And she's also recently become a shedworker, documenting her life in the garden office regularly on Twitter where she is @joannechocolat

So we were deighted when she agreed to give an exclusive interview - featuring never before seen photographs of the inside of her garden office - to Shedworking about her experiences at the forefront of the alternative workplace revolution.

Why did you decide to start working in a garden office?
Because I needed somewhere away from the house, where I found that I had too many interruptions and distractions. Working from home is a tough thing to do: most of the time it doesn't feel like work at all; it's hard not to get distracted, and harder still to establish a proper routine.

What does it look like, inside and out?
It's a stone shed, built on the site of an original 1930s wooden one. It has windows all along one side to catch the sun, a roof made of reclaimed stone slates, a lovely slate floor and green oak gables inside. The green oak smells gorgeous. The stone is all local reclaimed stone, except for the lintels, which are new.

The door is oak, as are the window-frames. Although there are only windows along one side, there's a lot of natural light - light is very important to me, and it was built very much with that in mind. I have no running water, but I do have electricity and heating. I try to avoid distractions, so I don't have much in there except the bare necessities - not even a radio.

What do you like about shedworking?
I love the fact that I have a designated place to work. It means that I can "commute" to my workspace (even though that only takes a minute) and "come home" again at the end of the day. Psychologically it's very hard for a writer to ever disconnect from the process of working, and to have a proper space in which to work helps a lot. People know not to disturb me when I'm working there. I don't have wi-fi access or a phone, so there are no interruptions, except from the garden wildlife, which is plentiful, but which doesn't bother me. I have a great view of the garden, too.

Who built the office for you?
My husband Kevin organized it all for me, and the actual building was done by our regular builders, Dave and Adam, who have done lots of other work for us around the house and the garden. Dave is a very creative, imaginative builder and contributed a lot of his own ideas. We wanted something that would be in keeping with the house and wouldn't look out of place, so we decided to build it in the style of a weavers' shed; low, with a lot of little windows. A bit of a vanity project in some ways (and very posh, for a shed!) but so worthwhile.

Do you have any tips for anybody considering working from a garden office?
I think it depends on the person's job, and their prorities. I knew from the start that I wanted to proritize light and seclusion. Others may have different needs. Either way, decide what yours are from the start and work on making them happen.

What is your favourite shedlike structure?
I once stayed in a beach hut on Hawaii's Big Island. For me, it's the only shedlike structure that comes close to rivalling this one...

For more details about Joanne and her work, please do nip along to joanne-harris.co.uk
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Shedvent

If you're feeling a bit bereft by the end after 11 years and 264 art installations of the Beyond Beach Hut Advent Calendar in Brighton and Hove, do not fear. Into the breach has stepped the church of St Thomas and St Nicholas, Bedhampton, Portsmouth. Their Shedvent celebrations centre on a special Advent shed which the local primary school, uniformed groups, WI, and other local groups will be decorating every day with a new approach to an old Christmas carol. The shed opens every day at 5pm until 6.30pm

And once again writer Joanne Harris is putting on her own Shedvent fun on Twitter. Follow the links below:

And the first door of #Shedvent brings you my December newsletter, including work-in-progress, news, art, competitions and the best piece of writing advice I've ever had. Not signed up yet? Do it now at https://t.co/lhhzemW0Ol...

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 1, 2019

For #Shedvent, I've unlocked all my ko-fi posts. Chapter 18 of THE BATTLEBRIDGE FAIRIES, free for you now on ko-fi... https://t.co/2Vn0WaA5K8

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 1, 2019

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Shedworking awards 2011

For literally the second time ever, we're presenting the annual Shedworking Awards. It's been another fine 12 months for shedlike microarchitecture and many thanks to everybody who's visited the site, commented and who replied to our Readers' Award call for votes on Twitter. So here we go with the first envelope...

Best design - There were some extraordinary designs this year from the very unboxlike Tetra Shed to Google's marvellous indoor shedworking facilities in London. We also particularly liked Office Sian's awardwinning Hackney Shed and the historic medieval garden office. But the winner this year is the ecofriendly garden office in Nigel Nunnett's RBC Wild Garden at Chelsea Flower Show: built from a recycled shipping container and with a lovely green roof plus habitat walls, it was a perfect example of how shedworking can be beautiful and functional.

Best blog/web site - As always, Lloyd Alter at Treehugger and Kent Griswold at Tiny House Blog brought intelligent writing and intriguing tiny architecture to a wider audience. The winner though was Christian 'Documentally' Payne who devoted an entire blog - DocuDen - to his new garden office and as you'd expect from one of the UK's leading social technologists, used all sorts of material to make it a rich experience to visit.

Best Tweeter – We saw a lot more shedworkers tweeting about and from their garden office space but none did it with the panache of writer Joanne Harris (@joannechocolat) who presented us with an almost daily dose of shed-based thoughts.

Best popularisation of shedworking – Unbound is a groundbreaking publishing project which relies on crowdsourced funding. It was launched at the Hay Festival in the summer (with a little help from Shedworking) in a 3rdSpace Garden Room designed and built on site by Sawhorse. Not only does the Unbound web site use shed imagery heavily, but the festival presence brought the concept of shedworking to tens of thousands of visitors.

Readers' Award - Some of you were kind enough to nominate the charity ebook The Happy Shedworker in this category, launched earlier in the year to raise money for Shelter. But by some distance, the winner was the Irish Men’s Sheds Association’s which launched with a bang and looks set to build on that early success, bringing the idea of shedworking to a wider audience around the country.

Lifetime achievement award – Brighton-based John 'Shedman' Davies has been writing poetry about sheds and using sheds in his festival visits and workshops since well before Shedworking was established. Not only is he a talented writer and communicator, using sheds in the most creative way possible, but he's a delightful and thoughtful chap too.
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#Shedvent

Day 9 of #Shedvent is a pomander, tied with a scarlet ribbon, releasing the scent of spiced orange and cloves into the smoky winter air.

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 9, 2015

Shedworker and author Joanne Harris is again providing a shedlike accompaniment in the run up to Christmas on Twitter, as she has in previous years, using the #Shedvent hashtag. Well worth a daily peak.

Door 3 of #Shedvent opens to reveal a mechanical bird in a gilded cage, playing a song from your childhood, long forgotten until today...

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 3, 2015

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Joanne Harris's snowy garden office

There are plenty of snowy sheds and garden offices around the country at the moment. Here's what the writing shed of novelist Joanne Harris (whose next book Vianne is out in May) looked like over the weekend. Readersheds supremo Andrew 'Uncle Wilco' Wilcox has once again been putting together a hashtag of #snowshed examples from around the country, but on Bluesky rather than Twitter which is where you'll also find Shedworking nowadays, having abandoned Twitter (for obvious reasons).

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Joanne Harris on her garden office

A very personal piece about garden offices and having a room of one's own by writer Joanne Harris at Certain Age in which I'm delighted to read she's planning a shed calendar. Here's a snippet:

My husband built me a shed at the top of the garden; a designated workspace of a kind I’d never had, built to my specifications, and free from the distractions of phones or random callers. It was lovely – stone-built, with beams of green oak, and even now that scent brings me back there cleanly and effortlessly.

 You can read her interview with Shedworking about the same subject here.

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A day in the life of shedworker Joanne Harris

Author and shedworker Joanne Harris (see our exclusive interview with her here) has written a nice piece about her 'normal' working day. Here's a snippet:

"When it was built, two years ago, the shed was bare and monastic. I didn’t have any internet - I wanted to avoid distractions. Since then, I’ve accumulated: books, an armchair; an enormous tree-root; candles; a kettle; some artwork; a kite; a Chinese parasol and many, many tea-mugs. Turns out I thrive on distractions. I also have the internet, partly because I was tired of having to run to the house to check my e-mails and messages."

You can read the rest of the piece on her tumblr. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Joanne Harris writing tutorials from her garden office

Novelist Joanne Harris, who works from a very impressive garden office, runs a regular slot on her Twitter page called Ten Tweets where she briefly discusses the said number of items concerning certain aspects of writing. It's excellent stuff and indeed she has just brought out a book called Ten Things About Writing which is well worth investigating.

She has also developed the idea into a series of ongoing shortish videos which you can find on her YouTube page here. Here she is below talking about getting to know your characters.

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Joanne Harris: shedworker

Author of Chocolat and many other novels, Joanne Harris has recently joined the ranks of shedworkers (she calls her very impressive garden office a 'posh shed'). Pictured above is the author on the opening night of her shed and the builders inside the working space. She has also been tweeting about it:

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Joanne Harris shows us round her garden office

A nice guided tour of her writing shed by the bestselling author Joanne Harris. You can read an exclusive interview with her about it and her shedworking lifestyle here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Women and sheds on Woman's Hour

As the BBC Woman's Hour programme website puts it: "Since the beginning of the pandemic, shed sellers have seen a surge in demand - especially those that can be used as home offices. And existing summerhouses and garages have been commandeered, particularly by women, as a growing number expect to be working from home. Instagram is awash with images of so-called "She Sheds"."

In this episode, presenter Emma Barnett talks about the growing popularity of garden offices with shedworking novelist Joanne Harris (whose exclusive interview with Shedworking you can read here) and Gill Heriz, author of A Woman's Shed. It all starts around the 38:40 mark and is well worth a listen.

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At the back of the garden office

We usually only feature the fronts and sides of garden offices, and sometimes the roofs. We very rarely focus on the backs of them. So it's about time we put that right. Here's the back of author Joanne Harris's garden office - for more details about her shedworking life, see this exclusive interview and for her new book click here.
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Christmas shed decorations

A few inspirational garden shed Christmas decoration ideas as we hurtle towards the 25th. Here's Neil's yuletided hut from Arctic Cabins. "We absolutely love seeing how our wonderful owners decorate their grill huts ready for Xmas," say the specialist BBQ cabin supplier, "and Neil hasn't disappointed! He's all prepped & ready to go...how inviting does it look!"

Every year, shedworker Joanne Harris provides a daily stream of excellent #shedvent tweets. This year's has inspired Lynne Nicholson to share her homemade Christmas shed, complete with Christmas lights and cotton wool ball snow, in an old flour caddy.

And finally here's Laura's Allotment Christmas shed ornament on her tree. 

If you've Christmassed up your garden office or studio, we'd love to feature you on Shedworking so please get in touch.

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Vote for the readers' shedworking awards 2012

On Friday we'll be announcing the results of the annual Shedworking awards (see here for a full rundown on last year's winners who included Nigel Nunnett for his work at Chelsea Flower Show, Christian' Payne's DocuDen, Joanne Harris, Unbound, and John 'Shedman' Davies). We want your votes for the Readers' Award section, won last year by the Irish Men's Sheds Association which has gone on to great things in the past 12 months.

There's no shortlist drawn up by the Shedworking judges for this award, it's simply down to what you the readers of this site believe to be the most impressive step forward in the world of shedworking during 2012 - it could be anything, a book, a play, a tweet, a design, a quote, and so on. Simply add your vote (and reasons if you would like to) in the comments section or email me directly, tweet it to @shedworking, add it to the Shedworking page on Facebook or indeed on that Google+. Or just tell me if you see me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Shedworking joins in celebrity shed event

New research for Cuprinol suggests that 30 per cent of Britons who own a shed describe it as their top inspirational place, so to celebrate the wood care specialists and sponsors of Shed of the Year competition have commissioned celebrity shed lovers to create their ultimate garden havens. I was very honoured to be among those selected for this and you can see the design for my office shed (painted in Maple Leaf) in Verulamium Park, St Albans (it's just by the Inn on the Park, near the tennis courts).

The other fine folk taking part are:
* Christian O’Connell- his 80s shed is on display at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and has been coloured using Cuprinol Garden Shades Pink Honeysuckle™
* Joanne Harris - whose sky shed is in Wales on the Lleyn Peninsula and has been coloured using Cuprinol Garden Shades Forget Me Not™ and Beaumont Blue™
* Vic Reeves - his Museum shed is on show in Northumberland and has been coloured using Cuprinol Garden Shades Sea Grass™
* Sarah Beeny - her Kings Head pub shed is in Rufford Park, Nottingham and has been coloured using Cuprinol Garden Shades Beaumont Blue™

The bespoke dens were created in conjunction with a team of artists, carpenters and stylists who helped bring the individual shed creations to life. Locations throughout the UK were then carefully picked, with each shed then transported across Briton to the stunning view points.

The sheds aim to provide inspirational places for budding sheddies to visit and also encourage them to transform their own garden dens into creative spots where they can work or enjoy some time out from their busy lives. The Cuprinol research also found the average Brit who owns a shed spends five months of their life in it, with a further 40 per cent of shed owners admitting to using it as an extension of the home, for everything from taking time out from the family to carrying out their hobbies.

My own feeling it that it's great that more and more people are realising the potential of the trusty garden shed which can be a fantastic place to work. I’m hoping this will inspire even more people to work from their garden retreat or just realise that sheds are a fantastic place to take time out from everyday life.

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Win a celebrity shed

The celebrity sheds were a very popular part of this year's National Shed Week and now you can own part of this historic event by bidding for one of them on ebay as part of a charity auction. As well as my own garden office shed (personally painted by me and worked in by me a bit) the sale of which will be raising funds for Age UK, you can also throw your hat into the ring for Sarah Beeny's pub shed, Christian O’Connell's 1980s shed, Vic Reeves's museum shed and Joanne Harris's sky-themed shed. More details at the ebay auction site here.

"The bespoke dens took each celebrity over a month to create, working with a team of artists, carpenters and stylists who helped bring the individual shed creations to life," said Uncle Wilco, organiser of Shed of the Year. "Locations throughout the UK were then carefully picked as places of natural beauty, with each shed then transported across Briton to stunning view points." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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