Having taken much of last weekend off, I do not need another bank holiday today, so the day is going to be spent working on a plan for my proposed book.
Two thoughts were sent to me on this issue. One is by the great black activist and writer, James Baldwin, who said:
You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even but a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change it.
There is much to agree with in that.
The other is this piece from the late Ursula Le Guin, when receiving an award late in her life:
Again, much to agree with.
Both managed what is hard: to produce writing that changes understanding. To pretend that achieving that is anything else is to deny the effort required to do so, and the demands it makes. I am hoping my efforts will be worthwhile. What I do know is that without a very good plan, I will not start.
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2 inspiring bits of advice! May you have a clarity of vision today, which gradually morphs into a plan.
Today, the inter-church foodbank organisation Trussell Trust produces a report calling for a new means of measuring extreme hardship, and also they outline the huge financial cost to society, of extreme hunger & hardship, suggesting a figure of £75.6bn in 2022/23.
I spent 5 yrs managing a (non-Trussell) foodbank, and reading their excellent reports. They have upset gov’t before, and will do so again.They know far more about this subject than any MP or DWP official because of the robustness and size of their data mountain, which now includes data from independent foodbanks such as the one I ran (and because they care).
For the first time, they are going beyond their own massive granular data store, and extrapolating it to make calls for radical change. I believe this to be very significant, and they will probably get flak for it. Again.
The brief executive summary contains the important stuff. It includes a hope for a future without foodbanks, despite politicians often accusing them of trying to expand their own “business”.
Send it to your MP, do all you can to publicise it.
https://cms.trussell.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-04/hunger_and_hardship_final_report.pdf
Noted
I will read later
And kept as a resource for my new book
To help you, I read a fantastic quote attributed to Mahatma Ghandi the other day:
“There are two days in the year that we cannot do anything, yesterday and tomorrow”.
🙂
Writing can be both art and science, drawing from imagination and creativity, to build a better society and ecology. I agree we need to tackle commodification and commercialisation of the written word, through the written word. Your outstanding blogs and reach can help other writers beside you Richard, spread to worlds unreachable by most scholars or writers. You have opened a real grassroots window. Keep going.
Re the Le Guin speech. I think I have said this herein before, but I’ll risk repeating myself.
I was lunching in Covent Garden a few years ago (a lot of) with the editor of a motoring magazine, to which I was an occasional contributor, and asked why he had written something that was demonstrably wrong. He said that he wrote what people want to hear.
Editors will in general only publish what they think people want to hear because that way they sell more magazines, newspapers, etc. So maybe the trick is to write it in such a way as to make it sound like it is about what people want to hear and cleverly weave in the real message?
In terms of communicating ideas… I would recommend reading Will Storrs new book ‘A Story is a Deal.’
Your reflections on the power of writing to change the world are truly thought-provoking. Do you have any specific strategies in mind for your book plan that you feel will help make that impact?
Give me a chance. And remember much of this will pull together ideas already on this blog.
Words are important, I’ve learnt so much from yours, keep them coming and I will certainly buy your next book. Thank you.
Thanks
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