WRITERS’ VOICE
Granting permission
Author Isabel Thomas demystifies the language of grant applications
Isabel Thomas
I’m no good at grants.
My first rejection came at university. I had applied for funding to top up a dwindling student loan. Several fellow students had been successful – even some who had attended private schools, owned laptops and spent holidays in their parents’ second homes.
I was different. I grew up in a lowincome, single-parent family, earning my own money from the age of 14 by working in supermarkets and pubs. I inherited a fierce work ethic from my mum, a typesetter by day and freelance proofreader by night, who kept us afloat. I even held on to my Saturday job during my first undergraduate year. While peers were sleeping, rowing, or reading in the Bodleian, I was working the tills at WHSmith. My money was hard-earned and carefully spent.