The Royal Literary Fund supporting writers and writing since 1790

This month I am delighted and honoured to take up my new post as Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Fellow at the University of Chichester, where I will be resident two days a week to offer writing support to all students.

The RLF has been helping writers since its 1790 founder, the Rev David Williams, was moved by the plight of an elderly translator of Plato, Floyer Sydenham, who had died in a debtors’ prison. Today, the RLF continues to help writers, and the Fellowship is just one example of their good work in action.

It’s a particular pleasure for me to be posted in Chichester, where I have strong connections, having studied there as a mature student at the very start of my own writing career. During that period, I gained from time spent with the resident Fellows of those years – Mavis Cheek and Stephen Mollett were both insightful and encouraging to this new writer at a time when I was both uncertain and deeply private about my creative endeavours.

I’m very much looking forward to my time at Chichester, where I’m confident I’ll learn as much from my visiting students as they will from me.

To read more about the Fellowship scheme and the many different kinds of support offered by the RLF, click here.