I have always enjoyed visiting the houses, rooms and desks of writers. Perhaps it was to feel close to genius, and perhaps I thought it might inspire or inform my own writing? 

I was gripped, then, by this book where the author, Katia da Cunha Lewin, interrogates the common fascination for the places where writers live and create.

As a child, whenever we went on holiday as a family, I'd seek out a literary connection and pester my parents for a trip to a writer's house nearby.

I still remember Kipling's Bateman's and Henry James's Lamb House in Sussex, and of course the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire. And even today, when visiting a friend in Lewes, I make sure we sneak in a trip to Charleston or Monk's House, and I always pore over photographs of writers' studies and desks when they appear in magazine articles.

So this book was fabulous! It's a beautifully written, intelligent book unpicking our desire to celebrate, protect and revere a place of creativity. The pens, paper, typewriters, furniture, even the view - they all hold a certain mystique.

What was it about this location and these belongings that enabled genius to flourish? 

The author shares her own experience and emotions as she looks at what makes a great writer and how they are perceived and respected in culture and society. She naturally features writers of the classics of literature, but she also shares interviews and insight from contemporary authors and their joys and challenges in perfecting their craft.

It's a wonderful book which should be on the shelf of every book lover!