The View from My Window | Sue Prideaux

No matter where you live, coronavirus has altered daily life. We’ve asked Faber authors to share a snapshot of their lives.

Nietzsche said: ‘Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.’ Whenever I get stuck writing, I look hard at the crocodile. If that doesn’t work, I go past him for a walk. Luckily it usually does the trick because in non-fiction you can’t follow Raymond Chandler’s excellent advice to stuck novelists: ‘Send in a blonde with a gun.’

My exercise route.

‘Never trust a thought that occurs to you indoors,’ said Nietzsche. I run through woods where just now the leaves of ancient oaks are unfurling over equally ancient drifts of bluebells. Nature’s indifference is magnificent. I feel bitterly sad at what the human race has inadvertently inflicted upon itself.

The world as it looks from my current vantage point.

‘To give birth to a dancing star one must first have chaos within.’ My current vantage point is the same as my perpetual vantage point: my chaotic desk. It’s metaphysically limitless, a time-and-ideas machine. But it does have its limitations. If only I could ski on it, swim in it, dance on it with my friends – God, how I miss those things.

Sue Prideaux is the author of I am Dynamite! A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche.