Tuesday, August 03, 2021

Peter Hanington: shedworker

 


Journalist and novelist Peter Hanington, whose latest thriller A Cursed Place, has just been published to excellent reviews, is also a shedworker (see images above) and tells us about his garden office life below:

"Like many of my male friends I had coveted all manner of different sheds before finally getting to walk into one of my own. The basic timber framed, shingle roofed shed was already there at the end of the garden when we moved in nearly 20 years ago. The previous owner had used it as extra storage space and with two small children we followed suit - filling it with bikes, football goals, paddling pools, plastic playhouses and castles, etc.

"As the kids grew, so the shed changed - GCSE and later A level arts projects, sewing, collaging, crafts, etc, and my wife and daughter put a plaque on the door that referenced the nicknames the family had affectionately given them:  'Slap & Dash - No Corner too Important to Cut.' When after years spent collecting polite rejection letters from agents and publishers I somehow managed to get a book deal, I got the family's okay to relocate to the shed. 

"Part of the appeal was the fact that the wifi wouldn't reach that far and so there were fewer technological distractions. Also, somehow that 20ft distance between the back of the house and the shed makes a difference - the walk from the kitchen and the unlocking of the shed door represents a change in purpose. I have a two-hour hourglass to encourage discipline and a CD player playing lyric-free music at least when I start scribbling, although if it's going well then the CD will end without me noticing and then the only sounds are squirrels or foxes on the roof, rats beneath the floorboards and the usual London street sounds. Heaven."

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  Tuesday posts are sponsored by Garden Spaces, suppliers of                    contemporary garden buildings, offices, gyms and studios, many of     which do not require planning

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