'Under pressure, or in the grip of a story I can't tear myself from, I occasionally read as I walk along the street. Fortunately I have great peripheral vision for lamp posts and other pedestrians.'
'Neglect your children, lose touch with your friends, live in disorder, get into debt; only when these things happen do books get finished. Make a schedule that is instead of, and not between, other activities. Stick to it.'
'There's a change or at least a preoccupation, not only as words are being penned or typed but also, invisibly, during other activities. But this is transient like having your arms full so there are tasks you can't complete until you've put everything down.'
Letters, photographs, newspaper cuttings… writers have always found inspiration in ephemera. Some have carried hoarding to excess, as Nicolette Jones explains.
Shanty-singing, bustle-wearing, wreath-laying, street parties, a campaign for lifeboats — her book about the Victorian reformer Samuel Plimsoll led the writer and journalist Nicolette Jones to embark on activities she never expected.
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