I signed both the Fossil Free Books statement and the more recent open letter to the investment company Baillie Gifford.
And so I was glad to see that the Hay Festival and the Edinburgh International Book Festival — both of which I’ve spoken at — were ending their funding partnerships with Baillie Gifford.
Writers, journalists, editors, illustrators, publishers, and festival and book workers had tried to make a small difference.
Since then, I have listened to the heartfelt and sometimes angry criticisms of the campaign, and of its possible negative effects.
This, written this morning, is what I have to say in response.
(You’ll see, it didn’t come out as prose.)
Festival Overture
What will be broken?
Many lovely things.
And what will we conserve?
The most we can –
some breath of beauty in the greying green,
some dead seeds, some notes, and a few recordings
of unnatural gentleness.
But not that much?
Expecting hope, we’ve wasted precious years.
We were appalled, and sat transfixed by shame.
We were appalled, and acted without proper aim.
We were appalled, and sacrificed our pleasures
far too late.
And so we ordered what was sent
and with it came this great diminishment
of everything not us, but us as well.
But isn’t it too soon to tell?
But isn’t it too soon to tell?
(2nd June 2024)
