The Guardian's very sympathetic obituary for Claire Rayner showed her sitting in her study, mug in hand, surrounded by books. And what, I hear you ask, was within easy reach - the same height as her desk, her mug and just above the arm rests on her swivel chair? Why a copy of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook!
It set me wondering what books you have within easy reach, presumably because they get used most frequently?
In my case it's dictionaries, in particular several of quotations, and the books on writing that I use most often. Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer and Stephen King's On Writing are never far away.
What about everyone else? Which books do you like to have next to you as you write?
Alison Baverstock
A former publisher, Alison writes about publishing and how to get published. She is course leader for the Publishing MA at Kingston University.
Stephen King's On Writing is amazing! It's always near when I write. In fact, my laptop is underneath my bookshelf, so I have plenty of fiction books to read during breaks to get me going: Harry Potter, The Wardstone Chronicles and The Chronicles of Narnia help, mainly because of the books I'm writing.
'The Elements of Style' by Strunk and White and 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss are also a must, because I always misplace apostrophes and commas...
God Bless Claire Rayner, When reading her columns in the papers, I thought what a genuine and passionate woman who had her heart in the write place.
As a part time writer or fiction stories and other topics, I have at my disposal the Oxford Popular Dictionary and Thesaurus as well as
'the Usborne book of English Grammar', which was recommended to me by my tutor from my writer's course. I took this many years ago and although the book was aimed mainly for junior schools, I find it very handy when I get a bit of Grammar or puctuation block.
I have also kept my old course files because, now with the internet and its thousands of sites, it is easy to fall into bad habits.