ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE

As a fellow of the RSL, I’ve watched this beloved institution descend into turmoil over questions of censorship, free speech and diversity. Can it still be saved?

by Patrick Marnham

ILLUSTRATION BY TIMOTHY HUNT

On 6th December 2023, a serious incident occurred at the Royal Society of Literature (RSL). The society’s director, Molly Rosenberg, cancelled publication of its annual Review as it was about to go to press, and fired its editor, Maggie Fergusson. Rosenberg objected to an article that mentioned “the devastating machinery of the Israeli state in operation” and had asked the editor to “lose these comments”.

At first Rosenberg denied that there was any connection between the “postponement” of the Review and the article that mentioned the machinery of the Israeli state. The RSL also denies that Rosenberg instructed the editor or anyone else to alter the copy or “‘censored’ any element of the magazine”. But statements from the designer Derek Westwood and Benjamin Myers, one of the authors of the offending piece, backed up Fergusson’s account. It was a clear case of censorship, and in the magazine of a writers’ society, during a period when freedom of expression is almost everywhere under threat, this was particularly damaging.

Fergusson, who is a fellow of the RSL, had edited the society’s Review for seven years and was considered an exceptionally conscientious and trustworthy colleague, having been the highly regarded secretary and then director of the society for 25 years before that. Anthony Gardner, the author, RSL fellow and founding editor of its magazine, told the New Statesman earlier this year: “Anyone who worked with Fergusson during her three decades of loyal service to the RSL knows her to be the soul of honesty; she had, moreover, no conceivable grounds for fabricating the claim. By accusing her of lying, [the RSL] has shown itself to be thoroughly unprincipled and aroused the indignation of the great majority of fellows.”

Fergusson says that the contents of the 2023 Review had been discussed with Rosenberg over the preceding months and had been approved two days earlier at the RSL council’s December meeting, when Rosenberg had given it an enthusiastic report.

On 21st March 2024, the novelist William Boyd urged Rosenberg and the chair of the RSL council, the poet Daljit Nagra, to call an EGM, or Extraordinary General Meeting. “Silence does the RSL no favours – it raises implications of guilt and/or indifference,” he wrote. He received no acknowledgement or reply. This secretive attitude reflected the contempt in which the council apparently held the fellowship.

The incident triggered widespread anger among RSL fellows, but the society’s leadership responded to the protests by ignoring them. A few days after Boyd’s call for an EGM, on 24th March, Michael Longley, a former Ireland Professor of Poetry, emailed Rosenberg and Nagra: “When I learned of Maggie Fergusson’s fate I wrote to her… This loyal and talented colleague should be cherished by an institution such as yours…” He received a couple of politely evasive sentences from Rosenberg in reply.

In an open letter to the Times Literary Supplement of 16th February, a group of 15 fellows led by Jeremy Treglown and including Geoff Dyer, Roy Foster and Alan Hollinghurst, revealed that Rosenberg had declined to meet them, but mentioned friendly conversations with Nagra, and urged the RSL to refer itself to the Charity Commission to investigate the reports of an attempt to censor the Review. The letter concluded: “We value council members’ voluntary services [and] wish them well in their deliberations.” The RSL described such courteous correspondence as “showing a lack of respect”, for it questioned “the trustees’ work and the careful consideration they have given to these matters, as well as the conclusions they reached”. It said it had “nothing further to add—neither would it be appropriate for us to do so”.

The protests grew as it gradually became clear that the society was being transformed by a dominant group on its council without warning or discussion, and that the high bar set for election to a fellowship had been drastically lowered. The RSL was set up under royal charter in 1820 with a mission, to quote its constitution, “to honour and encourage great writers and engage people in literature”. Its heart is the fellowship, which has traditionally enforced strict criteria for election. Under the bylaws, nominations are restricted to writers who have produced “two works of ‘outstanding literary merit”. Candidates have to be proposed and seconded by existing fellows, and their election has to be approved by the council.