Mark West

It makes him a more generous, more enlightened, better man, which I think is probably what Dahl hoped the writing life would do for him.

Once Dahl decided to devote his life to his craft in his late 40s, his routine, like Henry Sugar's, became one of almost religious ritual.

Here's Dahl in his first memoir, Boy, discussing the challenges of choosing life as a writer, recreating his voice as we did in previous episodes.

I love that.

Dahl manages to make the act of writing alone in a room just as brutal, terrifying, and filled with adventure as his life in Africa with Shell Oil or as a fighter pilot or as a spy.

But it's all worth it because of the freedom it offers.

So let's talk more about Dahl's particular act of writing.

If you ask 50 different authors about their process, you'll get 50 different answers.

I really can't get enough of this stuff.

Tony Gilroy, who wrote Michael Clayton and more recently created the Star Wars series Andor, talks about initially setting up his writing office so his chair faced outside.

But it soon felt like his ideas were flying out the window, and he had to rearrange the furniture.

Here's Dahl in Thrillmaker, interviewed by Peter Wallace, speaking about his own office.

Could that sound any more idyllic?

A writing hut in an apple orchard?

A separate studio is actually pretty common among well-to-do writers.

Dahl's Hut was modeled on one built for the poet Dylan Thomas.

Playwright Arthur Miller wrote a lot in Brooklyn Heights, but also escaped to a sparse little 7-by-10-foot hut on his property in Connecticut.

No decoration, no distractions.

The novelist Philip Roth also built himself a hut and constructed it with a standing, lectern-like desk so he could confront his characters on his feet, eye to eye.

Virginia Woolf built a small garden lodge in Sussex, her famous room of one's own.