Photo by Nothing Ahead at Pexels.

Writers, academics and publishers from the East Midlands have come together to write a letter of protest to Nottinghamshire County Council over its planned reductions in library staffing, opening hours and a 75% cut in its book fund. Within 24 hours of the letter going public 76 writers had signed the letter with the target of 100 in sight.

Those supporting the letter include well known local novelists including crime fiction writers John Harvey and Stephen Booth and children’s writers Gwen Grant and Helena Pielichaty. The list includes Julie Myerson, a major novelist who spent her early years in Nottinghamshire and who used to work in the local library service. Others include Eve Makis who, with Stephen Booth, acted as Nottinghamshire Reading Champions in 2009 during the National Year of Reading, aiming to bring more people into libraries. The list of writers ranges from novelist through to academics, and from fantasy writers to poets.

The letter was drawn up by Ross Bradshaw, of Five Leaves Publications, whose own career started in libraries and who was for ten years the County Council’s Literature Development Officer. He said “All the local writers I have talked to have been shocked at these proposed cutbacks. Councillor John Cottee, Cabinet Member for Culture, said that ‘We [the County Council] are committed to libraries being at the heart of the community’. If so, this is a heart attack. 100 writers and publishers responded within 48 hours.

Children’s writers in particular are astonished at these cutbacks as they know more than anyone how important libraries are in children’s lives.” He added “these cuts seem particularly thoughtless as the previous administration at County Hall had invested a lot of money refurbishing many libraries – including Eastwood, Southwell and Arnold – making them into beautiful libraries for the 21st century. The current administration plans to reduce their hours, their staffing and the number of books.”

The letter will be sent to Nottinghamshire County Council on Monday 25th October and will read…

Nottinghamshire County Council has announced major cutbacks in staffing, opening hours and in the book fund of libraries throughout the County (details below). All of us have used our local libraries in different ways – for research, for pleasure, for events with readers – and we know how valuable libraries are for children and adults. We are a group of writers, publishers and professionals working one way or another with books in the East Midlands and are appalled at Nottinghamshire’s decision.

This will have a major impact on the whole community, from business support to levels of literacy. The Cabinet Member for Culture and Community at Nottinghamshire County, John Cottee, says that ‘we are committed to libraries being at the heart of the community’. Maybe, but the Council’s action shows a different view. These cuts will drive down library usage and will deter visitors and investment as Nottinghamshire will be seen as somewhere with little concern for reading and culture. We urge a rethink.”

Paint a vulgar picture: The ugly facts.

• Staffing cutbacks of 83.4 full time equivalent posts
• Reduction of opening hours including one day a week for the bigger libraries, two days a week for the next level down
• 28 smaller libraries to become “community partnership libraries” on  reduced hours
• Mobile libraries to cut their visits to once a month
• Book budget to be cut by 75%
• The life of a book to be extended from an average 5.4 years to 21.5  years

“In times like ours, and perhaps in any times, it is a crime to take away access to libraries, which do so much good, and especially to cut services which affect those who can least afford to replace what a library provides. Like a canary in the proverbial coal mine, libraries are the delicate and lovely thing whose fate tells us whether what we value about our society is going to survive.” Eireann Lorsung, poet

“As a children’s author who visits schools, I know that library cuts will affect children from poorer families who can’t buy books.” Caroline Pitcher,  children’s writer

“The library was a lifeline to me growing up in Nottinghamshire. As a young teenager, I got through about 6 novels every couple of weeks. I still remember the authors I discovered. At 16 & 17 I’d go there on Saturdays to flick through the Writers & Artists Yearbook and dream of being published!” Julie Myerson, novelist

“Libraries aren’t just the heart of a modern society they are its mind and its soul. Libraries’ unique ability to promote and exchange ideas and imagination to every part of our society should be safeguarded at almost all costs. Libraries are a signpost to a better life, a life where understanding, tolerance, empathy, co-operation and community are held in the highest esteem. If that direction is diminished in any
way, it will be a loss to every part and, more importantly, to us all.” Paul Reaney, football writer

“I have made extensive use of public libraries for a current book project, including using the interlibrary loan service to obtain many hard-to-find volumes which I otherwise would only have got to see by making regular trips to London to use the British Library. Writing my book would have been both more difficult and considerably more expensive without this facility, which is just one of the many important and vital services offered by our public libraries.” Mark Patterson, writer and journalist

“Some of my happiest childhood memories involve library books and visits to public libraries – they were at least as important to my education as anything I learnt in school.”  Kathy Bell, academic and poet

“I look forward to paying my council tax next year. With all these cuts to services, it should only be £2.34” Moi, paperboy

Andrew Motion. Photo James Walker.

The winner of the Booker has never been easy to predict with the outsider often pulling off a shock. Take DC Pierre’s victory in 2003, who would have thought that such a populist narrative (imagine Jerry Springer on death row) would ever get the nod above a literary goliath such as Margaret Atwood or Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, which ticked all of the right boxes with her tale of multicultural life in the capital. Another notable exception to be usurped was William Trevor who lost out to rookie Yann Martel a year earlier. If anyone deserves the golden toaster of recognition for services to literature, it’s our Trev. But it does suggest that the Booker is free of cultural bias and favouritism, although the conspiracy junkies will tell you its very ‘unpredictability’ is evidence of foul play.

Perhaps it’s not the books we should be looking at then, but the judges. They have, after all, been selected for their suitability – although the selection of some panellists is arguably as controversial as the winners. Was it any surprise that Conservative elder statesman Douglas Hurd plumped for Ian McKewan’s Amsterdam? Who else would even care, let alone identify with, the misadventures of a foreign secretary, composer and newspaper editor? It was a self-indulgent status-dropping yarn, written for the inner circle. Then there is that other great bastion of the written word, Michael Portillo. When he opted for Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger he was offering the world an insight in to a corrupt Indian ‘told you so’ society, whilst proving – without any reasonable doubt – he was a nice guy Eddie, a man of the many different types of people of GB Ltd, and nothing like those ghastly Spitting Image caricatures. ‘I hope you all feel guilty for getting me wrong’ was the subtext.

When Lisa Jardine, the former protégé of Raymond Williams (CV: founding father of British Cultural Studies), crowned the Life of Pi literary king, she was admiring his humanitarian observations of the human condition, such as the need to respect difference and how to live in harmony with Others. Then there is last year’s winner Wolf Hall. Hilary Mantel’s speculation of political life would no doubt have pleased Radio Four’s James Naughtie, who in The Rivals and The Accidental American has exposed the ‘lark tongue’ shenanigans of the New Labour courtiers.

So let’s speculate about this year’s chosen ringmaster, Sir Andrew Motion, a curiously contradictory figure. On one level he is firmly a member of the establishment after his tenure as Poet Laureate and all that Lady Di hype. He also has a presence – in some capacity – on some of the most significant cultural organisations in the country. But he’s also a self-confessed ‘old school leftie’ and still a party member. In person he is softly spoken, awfully polite, and strikes you as a man of integrity. But then according to some critics this is another contradiction, less we forget the ‘Larkin betrayal’ and that affair. But it is the loss of his mother after years in a coma that has had the profoundest affect. To be physically present yet unable to communicate on a meaningful level has, I believe, shaped his psyche. The book that taps into this will win on Oct 12th.

This blog was first published for Nottinghamshire Libraries Booker debate