Inside famous writer's unique home: 20,000 books and three generations under one roof
Award-winning writer shares life in multi-generational household with massive book collection. Her seven-bedroom home houses family members while French getaway inspired best-selling novels
Kate Mosse‚ the 63-year-old award-winning writer lives in a seven-bedroom Edwardian house in Chichester with her husband Greg and mother-in-law. The CBE-honored author moved there about 17 years ago‚ bringing an enormous collection of books that rivals a bishops library
Their home needed lots of work - they found a hidden staircase behind 1950s boxing and turned old bath-tubs into garden planters (which sounds quite creative). The houses past is interesting: it was home to two sisters in early 1900s‚ then became a nurses hostel and training college
The kitchen became their main living-space with its wood-burning stove book-nook and comfy sofas; its got sliding doors that open to a green terrace. The family keeps an open-house policy - Kate shares space with her mother-in-law (whos almost 94) and previously cared for her parents. Various relatives come and go making it a true multi-generational home
I write in my pyjamas. The minute you get dressed you get slightly pulled into the world
Their house has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in every room - even the bathroom; storing about 20‚000 books. Her husband suggests a one-in one-out rule but somehow its never happened
The family also owns a small house in Carcassonne France since late 80s. Its built with stolen medieval city wall bricks and sits right next to the citadel. This tiny home inspired Mosses best-selling novel Labyrinth which shell perform as one-woman show next yr
