"[Tomorrow I] shall smell a red rose; shall gently surge across the lawn (I move as if I carried a basket of eggs on my head), light a cigarette, take my writing board on my knee; and let myself down, like a diver, very cautiously into the last sentence I wrote yesterday."
Virginia Woolf, as quoted by Caroline Zoob in Virginia Woolf's Garden: The Story of the Garden at Monk's House
Of her desk, above, Virginia said, "It is not an ordinary desk, not such a desk as you might buy in London or Edinburgh you see in anybodies [sic] house when you go to lunch; this desk is a sympathetic one, full of character; trusty, discreet, very reserved."
Living not too far from Monks House I have visited there several times. The writing hut draws me. You look through a glass window to the desk; see her glasses, her folders neatly lined up. Not hard to imagine VW has just gone for a walk in the garden. This book is definately high on my Christmas Wish List!
Posted by: Fran H-B | 17 October 2013 at 06:13 AM
The pictures in the book do make it look as though VW has just stepped out for a moment!
Posted by: Cornflower | 17 October 2013 at 10:17 PM
Hello! Do you know the original source of the quote from VW about her desk? I'd like to track it down. Thanks.
Posted by: Ruth | 05 December 2013 at 11:03 PM
Yes! According to the book's footnotes, you should find those lines in "A Change of Perspective: The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol. III 1923-1928" edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, (no. 1921).
Posted by: Cornflower | 06 December 2013 at 09:32 AM