Speaking ahead of the return of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which parted company with Baillie Gifford after a 20-year partnership in the wake of protests from climate activists, McDermid said the company had been “unfairly pilloried.”
Read more:
The Fife-born writer warned of the risk of festivals and the arts having to be over-reliant on public funding and the support of private philanthropists in future.
McDermid was speaking two years after climate activist Greta Thunberg pulled the plug on a sold-out appearance at the Edinburgh book festival in the wake of reports of Baillie Gifford’s links to the fossil fuels industry, saying she did not want to be associated with “greenwashing.”
Crime writer Val McDermid has spoken out over criticisms of Baillie Gifford’s sponsorship of festivals. (Image: The University of Edinburgh)
At the time, Baillie Gifford insisted it was not a “significant fuel investor.”
It claimed only two per cent of its clients’ money was invested in companies with links to the fossil fuels industry, compared to five per cent it said was invested in companies developing “clean energy solutions.”
The Edinburgh International Book Festival is now staged at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
However, the campaign group Fossil Free Books stepped up action against book festivals backed by Baillie Gifford in the spring of last year.
Hundreds of writers backed an open letter warning the festivals to expect escalation, including the expansion of boycotts, increased author withdrawal of labour, and increased disruption.”
Organisers of Edinburgh’s event announced the end of its Baillie Gifford partnership two weeks later, blaming the “withdrawal of several authors and threats of disruption.” Organisers of the annual book festivals in Wigtown and the Borders also announced the end of their involvement with Baillie Gifford.
The Edinburgh book festival, which is by far Scotland’s oldest and biggest celebration of literature, which has seen its government funding more than doubled in the space of 12 months, to a record £820,000.
A further £160,000 increase planned for the next financial year is expected to see the festival’s government funding rise by more than £1.5m by 2027-2028 compared to the last three years of Baillie Gifford’s involvement with the event, which it supported through its schools and children’s programme. The government has agreed to provide £300,000 in funding for the next three years to plug the gap created by the loss of Baillie Gifford’s support.
McDermid is one of 641 writers due to appear across almost 700 events in the forthcoming two-week programme of events, which will run from August 9-24.
She told The Herald: “Last year was difficult for this book festival. This year hasn’t been easy, but I think we can all see a light at the end of the tunnel now.
“The festival has come back with a really strong programme, with a lot of interesting themes and writers. I think people will really show up.
“It’s been a tough experience for the festival to pull it back from losing its principal funder.
“I know how hard the festival director Jenny Niven has worked with her team to recover the financial position, but it’s still been difficult.
“There’s no question that the festival has got less to play with than it had before.”
McDermid was among a group of leading Scottish authors who backed an open letter which described the targeting of book festivals as “deeply retrograde” and “ill thought-out” over their sponsors. Others included Alexander McCall Smith, Andrew O’Hagan, Chris Brookmyre, Denise Mina, Doug Johnston, David Greig and Liz Lochhead.
Many of the writers who backed the Fossil Free Books campaign have accepted invitations to appear at this year’s Edinburgh book festival, including Ali Smith, Hannah Lavery, Jess Brough, Raymond Antrobus, Chitra Ramaswamy, Andrés N Ordorica, Harry Josephine Giles and Katie Goh.
McDermid, who is due to make four appearances at the festival this August, said: “The Edinburgh book festival was pushed into a corner last year by a group of people who, I think in many cases, saw it as an opportunity to put their name in public lights.
“The level of hypocrisy among some of the people involved was quite staggering.
“A lot of people just jumped on a bandwagon without thinking about it.
“There was a lot of virtue signalling, rather than sincerely held opinions from people who had actually researched the topic and knew what they were talking about.
“No-one is saying that Baillie Gifford is white than white. But there is no such thing as a clean sponsor.
“If you dig deep, everybody who sponsors an arts event has got something in the cupboard that you would be uncomfortable with.”
“What do you do? Are we not going to have book festivals anymore? Are we not going to have the arts unless they are sponsored by rich individuals. How clean are they?”
McDermid suggested there was a risk of a return to the Renaissance era, 14th to the 17th century, when “rich patrons” were relied on to fund the arts.
She added: “The arts shouldn’t be dictated to by one individual or even one political party.
“I don’t think the arts should be entirely funded by state funding. That would be wholly dangerous and potentially pernicious.
“There needs to be a mix of funding sources, including ticket sales, individual philanthropists and corporate sponsors too.
“We have to be careful where we take money from, but I think Baillie Gifford was unfairly pilloried in the circumstances.”
A separate campaign group, Art Workers For Palestine Scotland, has targeted a number of other arts organisations backed by Baillie Gifford in recent months, including the [[Edinburgh]] International Festival and Fringe Society, over the company’s links with defence firm Babcock International.
[[The Herald]] told last year how Baillie Gifford had more than £60 million worth of shares in the owner of Rosyth Dockyard in Fife, which has previously worked with state-owned Israeli arms manufacturers.
