With World Book Night on April 23rd, we’re exploring the wonderful world of literature and looking at some famous authors who support good causes.
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Let’s dive into some writers who have become philanthropists and the causes they support.
Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris is best known for her novel Chocolat, which sold more than a million copies and was turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
Harris started her working life as an accountant before training as a teacher. During her teaching career, she published several gothic horror novels before finding success with the Chocolat series.
Harris is a patron of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Plan UK, and IDAS. She also sits on the board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, which makes sure writers receive the money they’re entitled to when someone copies their work.
Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman, the award-winning author of the Sandman series, American Gods, and Coraline (to name but a few!), was also a long-time collaborator with Terry Pratchett.
He started his career as a journalist in the 1980s and published his first book, a biography of the band Duran Duran, in 1984.
Gaimon has used his platform to get behind several causes, working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and encouraging donations to Ukrainian refugees. He is also a Patron of the Bookend Trust, The Open Rights Group, and The Science Fiction Foundation.
Reni Eddo-Lodge
Reni Eddo-Lodge’s first novel, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, was published in June 2017 to critical acclaim. Following the George Floyd Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, her book rose 155 places to top the UK non-fiction paperback chart, and she became the first black British woman to be No. 1 overall in the British book charts.
Since starting her award-winning journalism career in 2010, she’s been focused on feminism and exposing structural racism.
She has donated to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the feminist organisation Level Up, and the migrant rights charity We Belong. She also uses her platform to champion several anti-racism organisations in the UK.
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie
Salman Rushdie won the Booker Prize in 1981 with his second novel, Midnight’s Children. His fourth novel, Satanic Verses, is perhaps Rusdie’s most well-known and has led to many attempts on his life and a heated debate around censorship.
Rushdie started his career as a copywriter for an advertising agency, where he worked until the success of Midnight’s Children enabled him to become a full-time writer.
He is a patron of Humanists UK and is on the advisory board of the Lunchbox Fund. And he’s lent his voice to the Lannan and Freedom from Religion foundations.
Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s debut novel, White Teeth, was an instant best-seller when it was published in 2000. It won the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Guardian First Book Award, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, among others, and was adapted for TV in 2002.
As well as writing, Smith teaches fiction and is a tenured professor at New York University.
Smith supports local and national organisations. She’s lent her voice to the Lannon Foundation and Brent Centre for Young People, hosted a charity fashion sale for Laurence’s Larder, and protested with Writers Rebel, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion.
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