With this morning’s announcement at the British Library of the 2015 Folio Prize short-list, the pile of books on my bed-side table just got taller. Eight inches taller, to be precise, the combined height of this year’s shortlisted books. My task over the next month: to read my way through the short-listed books before we welcome their authors for readings and discussion at the British Library as part of the Folio Prize Fiction Festival on the weekend of 20-22 March.

The shortlisted titles for the 2015 Folio Prize.

This year’s Festival will open with the inaugural Folio Society lecture by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the Friday night, followed by a weekend of events looking at some of the great themes of story-telling (from Betrayal to Desire) featuring the Folio short-listed authors, as well as members of the Folio academy including Val McDermid, Neel Mukherjee, Eimear McBride and Jeanette Winterson. On the Sunday, we will open our famous Library Reading Rooms for readings by some of the short-listed authors: a rare chance to see inside some of the Library’s most iconic spaces, and hear the best of contemporary fiction. 

It’s the second year of the Prize, established to reward the best English language fiction published in the UK and, crucially, open to writers from all around the world. Last year’s short-list was a wonderfully unexpected mix of established and new—or even, in one case, self-published—authors. In the end, the Prize was awarded to George Saunders for his wry, disturbing, yet ultimately big-hearted collection of stories, Tenth of December.

2014 Folio Prize winner George Saunders reads from Tenth of December as part of the British Library reading room sessions.

For the British Library, working with the Folio Prize to host the Festival is a reminder of the crucial role that the Library plays in supporting new writing in the UK. We are not only a unique archive of literature from Beowulf to Ballard, but a space of inspiration for writers creating and researching new work. Our recently launched vision, Living Knowledge, promises to ‘engage everyone with memorable cultural experiences’, and this year’s short-listed writers are certain to deliver just that.

The eight names on that short-list are certain to be picked over and analysed during the next few weeks. At first glance, we notice more women than men (5:3, same ratio as last year); North American writers amply represented, though fewer than in 2014; and this year two writers born outside North America or Europe. (Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Akhil Sharma). But most apparent, and most important, is the strength and diversity of the writing represented. Books that reflect, more or less explicitly, on the nature of storytelling, and that touch, more or less urgently, on the big questions of life; books, in the words of jury chair William Fiennes, that are simply ‘happy to be themselves’.

 Jamie Andrews

Head of Cultural Engagement

 

From digitisation to public exhibitions to heritage acquisitions, there are many activities that the British Library undertakes that simply would not be possible without the backing of corporate partnerships.

This support is essential: not just as a means of funding our programmes but also in terms of developing our services and products through partnerships with the potential to bring much broader benefits than could be achieved working alone.

We have been fortunate recently to work with some fantastic corporate partners who don’t just help us fund our work, but bring much additional value too.

Magna Carta unification: the four original Magna Carta manuscripts - two from the British Library and one each from Salisbury Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral -  being prepared for display at the British Library. Photo by Clare Kendall

For example, we are currently working in partnership with global law firm Linklaters on our 2015 Magna Carta Programme. Given Magna Carta was a landmark in establishing the concept of the rule of law, there are obvious synergies with their business. In addition to sponsoring our historic Magna Carta unification event and our Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition, we are collaborating with Linklaters in other ways too.

Linklaters are supporting our Learning programme, which we hope will attract over 5,000 students and teachers to the Magna Carta exhibition, and the firm will also promote the programme to primary and secondary schools in Hackney with whom they work closely.

Linklaters will host a Magna Carta photography exhibition for students, which we are also supporting, as well as a special visit to the Library for their partner school, Clapton Girls’ Academy.

We’ve also seen benefits through Linklaters’ social media and online activity including:

• a Magna Carta interactive viewer that makes it possible to read and understand more fully the 800-year-old document,
• tweeting a Magna Carta fact a day,
• creating a dedicated sponsorship section on their website,
• a Tumblr page collating photos, quotes, and articles related to their support of the exhibition.

Robert Elliott, Linklaters Chairman and Senior Partner, says: ‘We are proud to be associated with the British Library and to commend all that it is doing through its exhibition and its wider public programme to mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta in a way which fully reflects the enduring importance of the events of 1215’.

We are also working closely with White & Case, another international law firm, who are sponsoring the US loans to the exhibition, making accessible the Declaration of Independence, hand written by Thomas Jefferson, and the Bill of Rights, both displayed in the UK for the first time.

Partnerships of this nature are not just of great value and importance to the British Library, but also to our sponsors, whom we have worked closely with to deliver unique partnerships which truly work for both parties.

Alex Michaels

Corporate Relations Manager