“Nice curtains!” was probably not the anticipated reaction to seeing inside Margaret Drabble’s writing room. They are, actually, but that wasn’t the intended focus of the 21 photographs presented by The Guardian’s portraitist, Eamonn McCabe, who invites us into private worlds where the secrets of creativity, memories of agonies and inspirations are stored.

The subjects are intriguingly varied. VS Naipaul’s tiny room is minimal and characterless, while David Hare’s faces a large film noir still, and Beryl Bainbridge’s contains a model of the Titanic, perhaps reminding her of previous success in wobbly moments (the handgun surely there for effect?).

Hanif Kureishi’s resembles a DJ’s den, bookshop and art dealer’s office and suggests a stage-set. Will Self has constructed an operations room, covering the chimney breast with grids of Post-its carrying jottings for his latest book, while the glass half-roof over Martin Amis’s room supports carefully placed autumn leaves overlooking a calm space.

The stage-set analogy also applies to those who leave rooms poised for action on their return, notebooks open in anticipation. But leaving an orderly room also suggests that the owner never returned — as with Roald Dahl’s museum piece, with writing chair, spectacles and cigarette butts ageing in an ashtray.

In their original contexts, these photographs came with writers’ descriptions but here it is our turn to use our imaginations.
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