Famous writing sheds

You’ve probably read the news about the Dahl family’s plea for funds to restore Roald Dahl’s writing hut. His grandaughter Sophie described the shed as “sacred” which makes one wonder about the consecrated nature of great writers' rooms.

Thousands of people each year visit Wordsworth’s home ‘Dove Cottage’ in the Lake District to catch a glimpse of the the furniture, family possessions and portraits where he lived.

There is something rather special about discovering the place which influenced a writer so heavily and to observe the surrounding nature which they wrote about.

Yet while Wordsworth chose to write a lot of his poetry on what was called his “domestic slip of mountain”, the popularity of the “shed” as a writer’s alcove is more common for scribes who need to retreat from the hubbub of life.

Dahl is far from the only writer to use a shed as a sanctuary where he could work without interruption. Mark Twain and Virginia Woolf (she had a shed of one's own) are among writers who retreated from the distractions of the outer world to garner inspiration and simplicity from the setting.

We've compiled a list of famous writers and their sheds.

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