Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by the Working Group on UK Literary Heritage

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  1.  The Working Group on UK Literary Heritage was established in March 2005 to develop and implement a national strategy for the acquisition of modern literary manuscripts by UK institutions.

  2.  Its current activities are focussed on three main areas of concern, each of which is dealt with separately in the following text:

    —  Funding.

    —  Guidance for Authors.

    —  Tax Incentives.

  3.  The Working Group asks the Committee to consider in particular the proposals for modest changes to taxation, detailed below, which have been submitted to HM Treasury.

INTRODUCTION

  4.  Under the chairmanship of Lord Smith of Finsbury, its members include representatives of all stakeholders: authors, publishers, scholars, collecting institutions, funders and dealers,[44] all of whom recognise that there are distinct challenges surrounding the retention in the UK of the archives and manuscripts of modern and contemporary authors.

  5.  Caring for collections begins with their acquisition. In order to preserve the nation's modern literary heritage, the archives of pre-eminent authors must be acquired by institutions able to offer expertise and experience in providing care, security and access. It is crucial that the issues at the forefront of the concerns of the Working Group are properly addressed now, before the manuscripts of today's writers are dispersed.

  6.  It must be emphasised that collecting institutions acquire the nation's cultural and intellectual heritage for future generations. Literary archives range in content from drafts of unpublished and published works, usually undergoing significant changes, to business and financial papers, diaries and personal correspondence. Nowadays, with a new generation of authors making greater use of email and word processing, they include increasing components of electronic correspondence. Such a broad range of material attracts interest throughout society. Widely used in teaching and academic research to explore the creative process,[45] the content of archives reaches new audiences through exhibitions, popular biographies, press coverage, film and documentaries. It adds a new dimension that complements and enhances the published works through its accessibility. Archives also act as a stimulus to further creativity in the written and visual arts, film and music.

  7.  Metropolitan and regional collections throughout the UK rightly enjoy an international reputation attracting tourists and researchers from around the world, and many regional collections have acquired the papers of writers with a local connection but international reputation.[46] If the archives of significant British authors, such as AS Byatt, Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith, are not collected within the UK, the impact on the cultural and intellectual wealth of the country will be far reaching. There is no substitute for first-hand access to such rich and diverse primary sources. Although it was recognised as far back as the 1950s that public collections were not acquiring the archives of modern authors, and action taken,[47] over the past few decades, the nation continues to see the papers of its pre-eminent writers being sold to institutions overseas, primarily in the United States. These include the archives, in whole or in part, of Julian Barnes, David Hare, John Fowles, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Malcolm Bradbury, Fay Weldon and Alan Sillitoe.[48]

  8.  Once lost to the UK, archives never return as they are not brought onto the market again, while copyright restrictions on modern works prevent the use of methods such as digitisation, which might provide remote access. Because some writers depend on the income from the sale of the working papers to fund their later writing, there are many instances of papers being sold in small batches over a period of time. If these are dispersed throughout collections at home and abroad, researchers of the future face the challenge of having to fund international travel in order to study the corpus.

  9.  Realising that there are several issues to tackle, the Working Group proposes action in a number of areas, and is active in bringing matters to the attention of those who can exert influence or make a real difference, including authors.

FUNDING

  10.  Modern literary archives, although attracting relatively modest sums compared to the cost of historical manuscripts or the dramatic prices of works of visual art,[49] still have to compete with the many other demands on an institution's budget, whether ring-fenced for acquisitions or to be spread more broadly across a range of functions and services.

  11.  The current typical total annual expenditure by public institutions within the UK on the literary archives of living writers resident in the UK for tax purposes can be estimated in the region of £500,000-£1,000,000.  Usually, their purchase necessitates recourse to an additional source of funding, such as the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) or the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).[50] The Working Group recognises the significant contribution made by these and other funding bodies, for example, the Friends of the National Libraries, but is concerned about the enormous pressure placed on these resources.

  12.  We welcome the recent decision of the Department to maintain the HLF's percentage of lottery funds at the current level until 2019 and urge that this is at least maintained thereafter. Likewise, the NHMF has seen a reduction in real terms of its grant-in-aid funding since it was established in the 1980s, when it received £14 million a year, and, while the decision to double its current award to £10 million annually from 2007-08 is welcomed, we would like reassurance that this level of funding would at least continue beyond 2007-08.

  13.  Beyond the funds available, more could be done to ensure that collecting institutions are in a strong position to compete in the international market. The process of bidding for HLF funds can be lengthy and bureaucratic, while decisions to purchase often have to be made quickly to secure the material. We appreciate that due diligence must be exercised in the expenditure of public money but any steps which could be taken to increase the ability of public institutions to act decisively and in time would be welcome.

GUIDANCE FOR AUTHORS

  14.  It is perhaps partly this complex process to access funds, and partly the knowledge that there is intense competition for a relatively small pot of money, that helps promote the perception amongst authors that their interests would be better served by US institutions. Some authors may also be deterred by the potentially public process that can surround HLF funding. This is despite anecdotal evidence that authors would prefer their archives to be held within the UK.[51]

  15.  Collecting institutions and dealers are able to provide guidance for authors wishing to sell their archives, but obviously this is only if approached. The Working Group has actively involved in its work the Royal Society of Literature, through its President, Michael Holroyd, and the Society of Authors through its Chairman, Mark le Fanu. While the Society of Authors publishes guidance for authors, formal advice on all current incentives disseminated by a central, independent body such as the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, which already has an advisory role, would be of great benefit.

  16.  UK collecting bodies recognise that their US counterparts have been energetic in approaching and developing relationships with authors and are becoming more pro-active in their dealings. In the matter of making it clear to authors that there is strong interest in acquiring their papers, UK institutions realise the importance of coherent collection development policies and of gathering data on national holdings. The location register,[52] largely a tool for researchers, is a searchable database of 20th century English literary manuscripts and archives, while Access to Archives provides searchable access to catalogues in public institutions in England and Wales of historic and current material.[53] The Group for Literary Archives and Manuscripts (GLAM)[54] is carrying out a comprehensive survey into the collecting policies and holdings of institutions throughout Britain and Ireland. As well as providing useful statistics on the level and methods of acquisition, and helping to identify significant gaps and collecting patterns, GLAM hopes that the findings will enable it to investigate the feasibility of evolving a collecting strategy for Britain and Ireland as a whole. Collaborative collection development has been carried on informally and successfully, with regional institutions collecting archives particularly relevant to their area and audiences, although often with a national significance and funded by national resources. The archives world is therefore making good progress in identifying and documenting its collections and policies, which will be helpful for authors.

  17.  Working together in these ways, UK institutions are actively addressing the issues, but there are still some lessons to be learnt from the US institutions which have been so successful over the past few decades in acquiring the UK's literary heritage.

  18.  An international conference, Manuscripts Matter, organised through the Working Group by the British Library and the Institute of English Studies, University of London, is taking place on 19-20 October 2006. With speakers from two of the US libraries with important collections of UK manuscripts, as well as leading authors, collecting institutions, dealers and scholars in Britain and Ireland, it will provide a forum for discussion of the key issues and sharing of information and advice. A programme is attached at appendix B.

  19.  However, while the Working Group encourages these parallel positive activities by UK public collections and authors, we are aware that action could be taken by HM Treasury to exert further influence.

TAX INCENTIVES

  20.  Existing tax incentives to aid the public acquisition of pre-eminent works can only be drawn on by the owner's estate, ie after the death of the writer.

  21.  In November 2005, the Working Group proposed to HM Treasury two modest changes to the existing schemes which would benefit collecting institutions and living authors:

    —  To extend the douceur arrangement with regard to inheritance and capital gains tax to income tax for living authors selling their papers to a designated UK public institution by private treaty.

    —  To extend the Acceptance in Lieu of tax scheme (AIL) to living writers.

  22.  Letters of support were sent direct to HM Treasury from a number of individuals, including Lord Bragg, Alan Hollinghurst, Peter Porter, Lord Robert Skidelsky and Alasdair Gray. No formal response has been received by the Working Group to date, although in official responses which we have seen to letters of support, HM Treasury has indicated that they cannot justify measures favouring literary archives and, therefore, authors, above other artists and owners of cultural works.

  23.  However, the matter of UK literary heritage has also been raised twice in the House of Lords, first on 13 December 2005, during which Lord Evans of Temple Guiting stated that:

    "apparently the Treasury needs convincing that this is an important area, as many noble Lords feel, and further discussions will take place with the DCMS, the Treasury and other interested parties".[55]

and on 24 July 2006[56], showing that there is support from many quarters for these small changes to existing taxation schemes.

  24.  The extension of the douceur would encourage authors, who currently pay income tax on any proceeds from the sale of their archives, to choose to sell to designated public institutions in the UK, as income tax would be waived and split between the author and the institution. While the douceur currently is split 25% to the vendor and 75% to the buyer, we would further propose splitting it, in such cases, 50/50.  Although of minor financial cost to HM Treasury, the long term significance to UK collections, and therefore the nation's cultural and intellectual environment, would be great.

  25.  Acceptance in Lieu is widely employed as a means of securing archives after the death of the writer. We propose that the agreement under this excellent scheme is simply brought forward. This would enable authors to arrange the sale of their papers before their death, achieving comfort from this and absolving their families of this responsibility, while allowing institutions to be guaranteed ownership of pre-eminent archives in advance. No change to the current procedures or cost is proposed. The acceptance process would remain the same, so HM Treasury would be assured that due diligence was employed, and no funds would be exchanged until after the writer's death. This proposal would be immensely important in securing those collections which are on loan to public institutions[57].

  26.  The major difference between these modest proposals and existing tax incentives is that they alone benefit living writers. While the Working Group applauds efforts to encourage greater take-up of current schemes, we would emphasise that none can be applied to the sale of archives of living authors, who may be sufficiently persuaded by these measures to sell within the UK.

  27.  As part of its submission, the Working Group investigated tax incentives in other countries, including the USA and Republic of Ireland. Although none are directly comparable, there is evidence that such schemes do increase cultural acquisitions. We are aware of HM Treasury's concerns about the potential abuse of income tax deductions and would point out that the two proposals above involve designated public institutions and, in the case of AIL, would employ the stringent criteria currently imposed by the AIL Panel. Therefore, they would not provide opportunities for tax avoidance.

  28.  We are happy to provide a copy of the submission if this is required.

  29.  Although the Working Group's emphasis is on literary manuscripts, our proposals and initiatives have a potentially broader scope which would include the archives of historians, scientists, economists and screen writers[58]. The great cultural, intellectual and economic contribution made by the creative industries in the UK would be supported directly and indirectly by improving the ability of UK collections to acquire the archives of modern and contemporary writers.

October 2006






44   Appendix A gives a list of current members. Back

45   Not only in tertiary education: Seven Stories in Newcastle-upon-Tyne uses the archives of children's writers to introduce primary school children to story-telling and writing, and many institutions have close links to local primary and secondary schools with whom they organise workshop events based on archiving. Back

46   For example, the University of Hull holds the letters of Philip Larkin and the University of Nottingham the papers of DH Lawrence. Back

47   Following campaigning by Philip Larkin, the National Manuscripts Collection of Contemporary Poets was established in 1963. Although it made significant acquisitions of individual manuscripts (already by 1967 it represented 57 writers), it was wound up in 1979. Back

48   Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, holds the archives of three of the authors on the 2005 Man Booker long list: Julian Barnes, Sebastian Barry and Dan Jacobson and, among those of numerous other living writers, the archives of Tom Stoppard, David Hare, Penelope Lively, Doris Lessing and the recently deceased John Fowles and Penelope Fitzgerald. Emory University, Atlanta, has acquired the papers, either in whole or significant part, of many UK writers during their lifetimes, including Ted Hughes and Carol Ann Duffy and Northern Irish poets Seamus Heaney, Michael Longley and Frank Ormsby. The Lilly Library, University of Indiana has acquired the papers of Malcolm Bradbury, Patrick O'Brian, Fay Weldon and Alan Sillitoe, and the Beinecke Library, Yale University holds papers of Peter Ackroyd, Caryl Phillips, Jeremy Reed, Donald Davie and James Lees-Milne. Back

49   Not more than £1,000,000, averaging £50,000 and typically ranging in price from £5,000 to £100,000. Back

50   For example, the Universities of Hull and Nottingham received HLF funding for their acquisition of the papers of Larkin and Lawrence, respectively, the National Library of Scotland has been assisted by the HLF in the purchase of the archive of poet and critic Hugh MacDiarmid, and the British Library in the acquisition of the Olivier archive. Back

51   Arnold Wesker sold his comprehensive archive to the Ransom Center, University of Texas, in 2000, for £100,000, having been offered £60,000 by the British Library. Wesker says "I would much sooner have had my work here in London but the gap was too large it is a shame." Back

52   http://www.rdg.ac.uk/library/colls/projects/locreg.html. Back

53   http://www.a2a.org.uk/about/index.asp. Back

54   GLAM was formed in 2005 and includes over 70 members from university, national, local and public libraries and archives. For information on GLAM and its aims go http://archives.li.man.ac.uk/glam/index.html; and survey http://archives.li.man.ac.uk/glam/glam5.html. Back

55   Mentioned in a debate on Funding of Works of Art: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds05/text/51213-01.htm#51213-01-star0. Back

56   http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/60724-1052.htm#06072410000015. Back

57   For example, Seven Stories holds many archives and illustrations on loan from the authors. Back

58   In 2002, the HLF was able to support the Wellcome Trust in their timely acquisition of the archive of a living British scientist, Professor Francis Crick, who died in 2004. The HLF's grant of half the purchase price of $2.4 million was crucial in the face of competition from US institutions. For further information about this acquisition please see http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/geneticsandsociety/hg13f020.html. Back


 
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