Matthew Beaumont

I like to write, if I can, in the mornings, when I feel mentally most fresh, with stacks of my books around me (surrounded by these books, which make me secure somehow, I feel a little like those babies whose parents prop them up in their cots with soft toys so that they don't roll over on their sides). I like to go for a walk before I start to write - otherwise I feel as if I haven't connected to the world outside my window.

Go for long walks, in the city or the countryside, and let your imagination off the leash.

Matthew Beaumont, a Professor of English Literature at University College London, is the author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London (2015) and The Walker: On Finding and Losing Yourself in the Modern City (2020).