With apologies to Andrew Marvell: at our back we always hear Time’s latest dismal controversies drawing near. The din on this occasion has to do with certain literary festivals, including the Hay Festival, the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Edinburgh International Books Festival, among others; and what these festivals have in common is their significant financial connection to the asset manager Baillie Gifford.
As a rule, literary festivals, of which the UK now boasts so many, depend on enlightened partners to stay in business; and BG has long been regarded as one of the most enlightened outfits of its kind. It has sponsored the literary prize that bears its name since 2016, and – a former BG employee assures us – it is run by “some specific partners who are pretty bookish”. They have been the ones setting the tone – and driving its sponsorship of the literary festivals. This is exceptional behaviour, apparently, for City types nowadays.
Yet some 800 writers and others connected to the books business have now signed a forthright statement, issued by the campaign group Fossil Free Books (see also NB, May 10), calling on those festivals to sever their ties to BG unless it divests “from the fossil fuel industry and from companies that profit from Israeli apartheid, occupation and genocide”. Both Hay and Edinburgh have had authors cancel their appearances, weighed up the prospect of serious losses, and acceded to these demands. BG is said to be in talks with other festivals about its involvement.
Bitter counterattacks have duly ensued – who could have predicted that? – with some accusing FFB of naivety (“dirty money is everywhere”), wrecking a fragile literary ecosystem etc. Nobody is denying that BG has between £2.5 and £5 billion invested in the fossil fuel industry, as well as nearly £10 billion invested in companies linked to Israel’s defence and cybersecurity industries; but its defenders point out that this is a tiny fraction of the company’s total investments, and that it’s the pension funds on whose behalf BG makes its investments that call the shots. More cowboyish investment companies are certainly available – as are some greener ones.
Someone critical of the FFB campaign described its approach to us as “not just to look the gift horse in the mouth, but to punch it and tell it it’s a bad horse”. In short: “The money will simply not return”. A contrary voice in our ear points out that the festivals have sleepwalked into this mess: “They felt that as long as it was ‘just’ about the climate crisis they could ignore it”. Meanwhile, Hay has reported with relief that ticket sales for this year’s festival, which closed last week, are up on the previous year. “It felt business-as-usual on the ground”, we heard. And we are left asking who has made the bigge r noise – those writers who st
