Across the road from my parents' house, where I'm currently living, is a house that's in the process of being extended to the side and back. The work began last summer but has been on and off since then and there still looks to be a lot to do.

I only mention this as the room I use as an office is at the front of the house and, although the desk faces the corner of the room, I only have to lean to the side a little to see what's going on out of the window.

Fortunately, my concentration has got better over time and I only occasionally glance outside to see what's going on. It helps that summer is taking a long time to arrive in London this year so windows are still closed and outside noises and distractions are much quieter. In fact the only real distraction for me is when a conversation is going on somewhere within earshot. If I'm trying to write an exchange between two characters I have to wait for the conversation to end before I can continue. It's the one noise I can't work through.

I never used to be that disciplined. In my last house I was working full time and writing usually only happened at the weekend. My desk was set up in the third bedroom but, for some reason, the builders of my property decided the smallest room needed two windows and so my desk was directly in front of one of them, making it much easier to look up from the laptop and see what was going on outside. Once I'd looked up it seemed as good a time as any to go downstairs and get a coffee, and perhaps a biscuit. While down there I'd notice the washing had finished so I'd unload the machine and put the clothes on the dryer. After that, well I might as well drink the coffee downstairs. I wonder what's on the TV?
And that was my writing day over.

I would suggest to people that if you need a home office (for any job), always position your desk so that you are facing the wall. It will definitely make it easier to maintain concentration. I watch a lot of these Home shows on TV and have seen several where the house buyer wants a room with a view so that they can find inspiration to write stories or poems. Possibly the view will be inspirational but it will also be a distraction. There'll be too much time looking at that, rather than at a computer screen.

It was watching a documentary programme about Roald Dahl a number of years ago when I became aware of this. I grew up reading Roald Dahl's fantastic children's books and was surprised to see him head off to an old shed in his garden with a thermos flask. He sat down in a winged-back chair in a dark room and placed a plank of wood across the arms to serve as a desk. There, he created all those wonderful worlds and characters.

Views are great to add to a book to give an idea of surroundings, but nothing beats a plain, old wall for concentration.