Artyness columnist and writer Barbara Henderson finds something unexpected keeping her awake into the night
Help! Help! I don’t know what’s happening to me!
I stayed up unreasonably late reading a book. That in itself isn’t uncommon – who needs sleep anyway? No, the cause of concern is this: I was reading non-fiction!
I am a stories-kind-of-gal, and always have been.
So how on earth did I deem it necessary to read through the small hours (on a work night) for Nigg-based writer Tony Ross’s new book, Work From Home Successfully?
I’m not entirely sure of the answer yet.
I have been aware of Tony for years. As one of the founder members of the original Highland Literary salon, now called HighlandLIT, Tony has given much to the literary scene in these parts.
It has always been non-fiction for him: writing manuals, how-to texts and procedures. The first version of Work Successfully From Home was actually completed in 2020, just as a flood of similar books were pouring onto the shelves to meet the market created by the pandemic.
“Most of these were focusing on tools – you know, software or kit that would enable you to make homeworking happen. I wanted to hit a different angle. My thinking focused on making what you already have work better for you,” he explains. “It really should have been published in early 2021. It was ready. But at that time, due to the pandemic, my own mental health wasn’t great. Besides, the first lockdown had come to an end.
“It felt like the wrong time, so I shelved the project. However, recently, I have been in a much better place and realised that there is probably still a place for a book like mine, as more people choose to do what I have done for over 20 years: work from home.”
Reflecting, I realise now – what pulled me through the book last night was a powerful sense of Tony himself. Far from being patronising, it seems to me simply a gathering, a collection of common sense. When I tell him so he grins, looking a little relieved.
“Oh good! All I wanted to do was say: Here are some of the things I found out. This is what worked for me. This is what didn’t. Try it and figure out what works for you.”
The accessible layout intersperses Tony’s clearly structured musings with research evidence and quotes from other home workers whom he consulted on the subject: “I didn’t want it to be just me,” he explains. “But I was surprised by how much we were all on the same wavelength. Their little nuggets chimed with my thinking. Quoting them throughout makes for a better book, I think.”
I agree. And I’m glad to say, my next non-fiction read is already waiting by the bedside: Jennifer Morag Henderson’s Daughters Of The North. I’ll keep you posted!
Work From Home Successfully is in paperback (£7.99) or ebook (£2.99) from Amazon and all the e-book providers, as well as from https://rosscottagepublishing.co.uk
