“There are no distractions; in the end all that stands between me and writing the book I wish to write is my own mediocrity and complete lack of talent.”

Bruny Island is located off the south-east coast of Tasmania, which itself is an island off the south-east coast of mainland Australia. It’s home to around 600 people, an iconic lighthouse, an oyster farm, an endangered species of Pardalote birds and, for at least part of the year, one internationally bestselling author.

In this video produced by Joel Tozer, Richard Flanagan, winner of the 2014 Man Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, shares the role the isolation of this location plays in his writing process.

Flanagan also shows his writing space, a room in a shack on the island explaining “as the novel progresses, there is less and less in the room, and I tend to empty out furniture, books, everything, until all I’m left with is just myself and the manuscript.”

Photo of Bruny Island by Adam Selwood via Creative Commons