A room of one's own...

I remember the first time I got my own room. It was barely more than a cupboard with a bed at the end, but it was wonderful. For the first time I knew what it was to close a door, to be private and alone, to craft, dream and read.

I had always loved solitude and before then the only way to find it was in nature - I would find a tree with low branches or a suitable shrub and build myself a little bower, like the birds.

Since then I have had many rooms. When I lived in Manchester my room looked out over the factory wastes, and I papered the walls with pop stars. It was my bedroom and my writing den and my studio - so much larger than the first room I called my own, it was as if I had a whole house to myself.

My room at Riversleigh reminds me of that, although the view is much better - through the tall tree branches I can see the distant hills, and not a trace of factory smoke. My bed is surrounded with books, because it is a day bed where I can lie amongst piles of cushions and read. My writing desk is under the window where I can refresh myself with the view when I am tired. And my art bench gets the best of the light - it's a bit messy, covered with tubes and bottles of paint, rubber stamps and inks, and boxes holding paper and ephemera. When I get back here there is always something left half finished that I can just pick up and start again.

I love lots of light and fresh air. When I am at home every door and window is open, and the garden is visible wherever I am. So my ideal room combines both - the inside reaches out and the outside comes in. That's what comes of growing up a barefoot urchin with all of Ireland to explore.

There are two things my room must have - books and music. The books are mostly old - books I loved in childhood, such as the Milly-Molly-Mandy stories and Enid Blyton. I just finished re-reading CS Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy and as always his magnificent prose has set my head buzzing. Then there is music - music is the breath of life to me. I have a small radio and cassette player which still works fine so I haven't upgraded it. The only thing I really miss is radio as it used to be, with serials, variety shows and comedies like Round the Horne. But I do have some of these on tape and though it's not quite the same, it will do.

A room of one's own, where you can create your own world - how necessary that is, if we are to survive in today's world. We need a place to shut it out, to silence its demands, and get over its shocks, a place where there is still CS Lewis on the bookshelf and the simple tools of creativity that don't need a wall plug to operate.

My room at Riversleigh and my room in the real world (which is the real world, I wonder?) are havens where time, if I so wish it, can stand still and catch its breath.