Society of Authors backs campaign to save Kensal Rise Library

Chair of organisation writes to All Souls College who own the building

The chair of a prominent literary organisation has thrown her weight behind the campaign to save Kensal Rise Library.

Lindsey Davis, chair of the Society of Authors, has penned a strongly worded letter to Sir John Vickers, the warden of All Souls College in Oxford, who own the building.

Ms Davis, a crime novelist behind the Falco series, has become the second person to write directly to Mr Vickers after Labour MP Dennis Macshane was also moved to try and save the ancient reading room in Bathurst Gardens.

The letter, which makes reference to the stripping of the library at 3am in the morning earlier this year, reads: “I was ashamed to see an institution of my university and a registered charity involved in the actions that were reported so luridly.

“May I say that, on behalf of the society that we hope All Souls will bear in mind the importance of public libraries at a time when so many are threatened with closure.”

The Society of Authors has more than 9,000 Members and Associates from all areas of the profession and aims to protect the rights of writers and stress the importance of literature.

The building, alongside another in Olive Road, Cricklewood, was given to Brent by the Oxford University college in 1854.

It was officially opened by American author Mark Twain in 1900 but both were permanently closed by Brent Council alongside four other reading rooms last year.