The activists’ war on book festivals spells disaster for authors

Touring the country’s literary festivals as an author isn’t glamorous. Like travelling salesmen, we get into our cars or board trains to head to destinations that are often hundreds of miles away to talk about our books for an hour or so. The audience – if the talk has gone well – will then hopefully buy some copies. It is not an existence to be envious of, but it is an essential part of writing: without such festivals, authors like me would lack any kind of name or face recognition amongst our readership. It is likely that any subsequent books we write would sell in smaller and smaller numbers. Yet this essential part of the publishing infrastructure is now under attack from activists. There’s a danger the whole edifice could come crashing down.

The Hay and Edinburgh literary festivals – the two largest and most prominent such events in Britain – have been obliged to sever their financial links with their main sponsor, the asset management company Baillie Gifford.