Daily Rituals

'A trove of entertaining anecdote' Daily Telegraph

'It will fascinate anyone who has ever wondered of their artistic heroes: how the devil did they manage?' Guardian

How is a novel written? A masterpiece painted? A symphony composed?

Benjamin Franklin took daily naked air baths and Toulouse-Lautrec painted in brothels. Edith Sitwell worked in bed, and George Gershwin composed at the piano in pyjamas. Freud worked sixteen hours a day, but Gertrude Stein could never write for more than thirty minutes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in gin-fuelled bursts - he believed alcohol was essential to his creative process.

Here are the working routines of more than a hundred and sixty of the greatest philosophers, writers, composers and artists ever to have lived, who, whether by amphetamines or alcohol, headstands or boxing, made time and got to work.

'A fascinating little book' Financial Times

'A delightful book, full of quirks and oddities' Literary Review