My office

I love my office. It's sunny, on the ground floor, and in the exact centre of the house. It puts up with me, the two dogs and an endless stream of friends and family passing through.

There are two doors on the front of our house - one formal entrance for guests and visitors who are not privy to the chaos of our personal space - and the rickety door that comes straight into my office. Coming in through that door denotes a rite of passage from guest to friend.

There are four doors in my office, one at each point of the compass. As a result, it is the dumping ground for stuff on its way to somewhere else. Every now and then I take all those things to their own homes and regain my space.

In the background you can see Flynn our husky on his back as usual. Kit, the labrador, has, for the first time in her life, failed to be in the shot, let alone in the centre where she normally plonks herself.

The picture on the far left is actually a poster I found, and fell in love with, in a bookstore in Aarhus, Denmark in about 1979. It is of Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo's painting The Fourth Estate - a symbol for progressive and socialist causes in Italy, depicting the moment that factory workers first stepped forward into the light to assert themselves in the name of Workers' rights.

The pixellated picture on the left of the back wall is of Ali as painted with squares of foam by our good friend Jean de Pouzolles. The painting on the right I bought in Brighton in the late 80's and it shows the back of the most miserable woman on earth. Although Ali loathes it, I keep it there to remind myself of just how lucky I am.

PS - Please forgive the poor stitching on this photo. I'm a beginner at this stuff.