diff --git a/testscript/testdata/nothing/nothing.txt b/testscript/testdata/nothing/nothing.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c0ff0eae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testscript/testdata/nothing/nothing.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Intentionally empty test script; used to test Params.WorkdirRoot
+
+-- README.md --
+This file exists so that a test for Params.WorkdirRoot can verify the existence of a file
+within WorkdirRoot/script-nothing once scripts have finished.
diff --git a/testscript/testscript.go b/testscript/testscript.go
index 700c12a7..b440d748 100644
--- a/testscript/testscript.go
+++ b/testscript/testscript.go
@@ -97,6 +97,12 @@ type Params struct {
 	// left intact for later inspection.
 	TestWork bool
 
+	// WorkdirRoot specifies the directory within which scripts' work
+	// directories will be created. Setting WorkdirRoot implies TestWork=true.
+	// If empty, the work directories will be created inside
+	// $GOTMPDIR/go-test-script*, where $GOTMPDIR defaults to os.TempDir().
+	WorkdirRoot string
+
 	// IgnoreMissedCoverage specifies that if coverage information
 	// is being generated (with the -test.coverprofile flag) and a subcommand
 	// function passed to RunMain fails to generate coverage information
@@ -160,9 +166,14 @@ func RunT(t T, p Params) {
 	if len(files) == 0 {
 		t.Fatal(fmt.Sprintf("no scripts found matching glob: %v", glob))
 	}
-	testTempDir, err := ioutil.TempDir(os.Getenv("GOTMPDIR"), "go-test-script")
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
+	testTempDir := p.WorkdirRoot
+	if testTempDir == "" {
+		testTempDir, err = ioutil.TempDir(os.Getenv("GOTMPDIR"), "go-test-script")
+		if err != nil {
+			t.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	} else {
+		p.TestWork = true
 	}
 	// The temp dir returned by ioutil.TempDir might be a sym linked dir (default
 	// behaviour in macOS). That could mess up matching that includes $WORK if,
@@ -528,7 +539,7 @@ func (ts *TestScript) condition(cond string) (bool, error) {
 // abbrev abbreviates the actual work directory in the string s to the literal string "$WORK".
 func (ts *TestScript) abbrev(s string) string {
 	s = strings.Replace(s, ts.workdir, "$WORK", -1)
-	if *testWork {
+	if *testWork || ts.params.TestWork {
 		// Expose actual $WORK value in environment dump on first line of work script,
 		// so that the user can find out what directory -testwork left behind.
 		s = "WORK=" + ts.workdir + "\n" + strings.TrimPrefix(s, "WORK=$WORK\n")
diff --git a/testscript/testscript_test.go b/testscript/testscript_test.go
index caf60732..ac97400d 100644
--- a/testscript/testscript_test.go
+++ b/testscript/testscript_test.go
@@ -203,6 +203,32 @@ func TestTestwork(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// TestWorkdirRoot tests that a non zero value in Params.WorkdirRoot is honoured
+func TestWorkdirRoot(t *testing.T) {
+	td, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "")
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("failed to create temp dir: %v", err)
+	}
+	defer os.RemoveAll(td)
+	params := Params{
+		Dir:         filepath.Join("testdata", "nothing"),
+		WorkdirRoot: td,
+	}
+	// Run as a sub-test so that this call blocks until the sub-tests created by
+	// calling Run (which themselves call t.Parallel) complete.
+	t.Run("run tests", func(t *testing.T) {
+		Run(t, params)
+	})
+	// Verify that we have a single go-test-script-* named directory
+	files, err := filepath.Glob(filepath.Join(td, "script-nothing", "README.md"))
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+	if len(files) != 1 {
+		t.Fatalf("unexpected files found for kept files; got %q", files)
+	}
+}
+
 // TestBadDir verifies that invoking testscript with a directory that either
 // does not exist or that contains no *.txt scripts fails the test
 func TestBadDir(t *testing.T) {