Celia Paul: ‘Writing is a journey on the ground. Whereas if you paint you see everything at once’

We are now outside the Pensione Calcina, where the art critic and writer John Ruskin took a room in 1876–1877 while working on The Stones of Venice. “It’s also where Annie Ernaux stayed when she wrote Simple Passion,” says Paul. Ernaux’s book charted an all-consuming love affair.