A tribute to Francis King (1923–2011)
In July we were saddened to learn of the death of novelist, short story writer and co-founder of ALCS, Francis King, at the age of 88.
A gifted writer, well-known for his generosity and tolerance, he published almost 30 books over six decades. He worked tirelessly in the literary community and was President Emeritus of International PEN as well as being a central figure in the founding of the Writers’ Action Group (WAG) with Maureen Duffy and others in 1972.
The WAG campaigned for Public Lending Right (PLR) in the late 1970s and later went on to set up the Authors’ Lending Rights Society, which eventually became ALCS.
Honorary President of ALCS Maureen Duffy paid this tribute to her friend:
Although a natural conservative, Francis was always willing to stand up for anything he believed in, even when it meant taking on the establishment, as witnessed by his conscientious objection to war and his being part of the original gang of five in setting up WAG to fight for PLR. Like many writers he had to take a series of jobs in order to support his writing, all of which he did with dedication and integrity while still managing to produce a stream of well crafted novels. His gentle, gentlemanly manner belied his inner toughness and determination. Known affectionately to his many friends, though perhaps not to himself, as ‘Granny’ he will be much missed by them, and all writers should be grateful to him that, almost against his natural inclination, he was willing to stand up for them in the seven year campaign to achieve PLR.
ALCS AGM 2011: Thursday 24 November
We are pleased to announce that, for the second time, we will be holding our Annual General Meeting outside London. The 2011 AGM will take place at the George Hotel in Edinburgh, on Thursday, 24 November.
Doors will open at 17:00 for tea and coffee and the AGM will start at 17:15. We hope as many of you as possible will be able to attend and we look forward to meeting you there.
Members should by now have received their AGM invitation pack. If you haven’t please get in touch with us at communications@alcs.co.uk or call us on 020 7264 5740.
Wellcome Library pilot
Earlier this year ALCS was approached by the Wellcome Trust to assist with a project to digitise a collection of books on genetics published between 1850 and 1990, and make them available online for research purposes. As the majority of the titles in the collection are out of print, identifying and tracing the authors and publishers to seek permissions presents a major challenge.
ALCS and the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) have developed a system for Wellcome that will deploy our respective databases and networks of international rightsholders to provide a search and contact service for the authors and publishers of around 1,700 titles. This pilot project will provide the first major test for the ARROW system (an EC-funded project for linking rights data and facilitating usage permissions) and will enable ALCS and PLS to test and develop individual and shared rights identification systems for published works.
This is a very timely project, given the ongoing UK and EC debates about orphan and out of commerce works, and it will provide us with a much better understanding of the processes and costs involved in performing ‘due diligence’ when searching for rightsholders. The pilot is scheduled to run until summer 2012; we will report on developments as this work progresses.
Marlborough Litfest: bigger and better
We’re delighted to say that September’s Marlborough LitFest was bigger and better than ever.
It was our second year as founding sponsor of the Festival, which once again featured some fantastic writers including David Edgar, Peter Davison, Lemn Sissay, Judy Golding, Carsten Jensen, Anne Sebba, Nicholas Fogg, Deborah Moggach, Michael Holroyd and many more.
Talks, poetry and creative writing workshops took place in some of Marlborough’s loveliest venues.