All my non-fiction is written in my study in North London. No music in the background. Telephone rings and interruptions fail to disrupt the flow. It's different for fiction. I usually try and find a Writer's Retreat close to the sea without any communications except for emergencies. All my novels have been written with the sea close by and with music. Classical music, but not opera. Shostakovich's string quartets, Beeethoven's symphonies and piano sonatas and Mozart have helped a great deal over the years. The only interruptions I permit myself are two meals a day. It starts slowly but as I get into the rhythm the mind produces more words each day till an acceptable average emerges. Pushkin once compared writing poetry to a cobbler dependent on producing a pair or two of shoes each day. I know what he meant.
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