The author Jane Harris has written the following letter to the Booker Foundation and urges other GC people to do the same. I have asked her permission to identify her as the author and she says "she doesn't give a shit" about her name being on it. She asks not to simply copy it, as it should come from the heart. The more letters we send them, the better!
Jane said on FB: If you have read and know the background to recent events re Baroness Nicholson and the campaign that Damian Barr led against her which resulted in her 'cancellation' - and if you are smart enough to see and understand the misogyny and hypocrisy that has fuelled this - please write to the Booker people to register your concerns. Here is my letter. Please feel free to use it as a template. My letter is not great or comprehensive as I am frazzled but felt it important to get it in now.
Send your letters by email to [email protected] and also to [email protected]
This is her letter:
Dear Gaby and Dotti,
Along with many other people, I am very concerned at the events of the past ten days or so, concerning the witch-hunt against Emma Nicholson. I hate injustice and I find it incredibly unfair that the Baroness has been removed from her post while other Booker figureheads remain as trustees - for instance, David Willetts, whose own record on voting re LGB matters has also been called into question.
Why does the Baroness have to be removed when Willetts remains? This seems grossly unjust and the hastiness of the decision-making does not help. The trustees who voted to remove Nicholson included Willetts. Again, this seems entirely wrong.
Moreover, you at The Booker have caved to a vicious campaign spear-headed by Damian Barr - a man whose own record in terms of his prejudices has now been proven to be less than pristine as it’s plain from his tweets he is certainly a misogynist and a transphobe.
This matter is further complicated by the fact that the Baroness is simply a scalp. Barr’s campaign - carried out along with co-conspirator Munroe Bergdorf - was simply a way of exacting revenge. This revenge is for the fact that the trans lobby failed to ‘cancel’ JK Rowling for her support for women. Barr is hypocrite enough to be a transphobe but to appear to be supportive of trans rights and work with Bergdorf as a political expediency so long as it means he can punish a woman.
The fact is, Emma Nicholson began a charity with JK Rowling and has been helping women to fight for their rights against a background of increasing demands from the trans lobby. And so, when that lobby failed to bring down Rowling when she spoke the truth, they turned on Nicholson. This is the ONLY REASON all of this has happened.
Please see my tweets for more background if you don’t believe me.
The right thing to do in this instance would be to apologise to Emma Nicholson and reinstate her. Women are also a powerful lobby group. Please listen to our concerns, apologise to the Baroness and reinstate her.
Would you mind letting me know if you’ve received this? I want to check you both got it.
Thanks
yours
Jane Harris