The 2024 London Book Fair returned this year at Kensington Olympia to more controversy and division than ever. Hot debate topics included AI, free speech, and the marginalisation of creatives. The fair, which is considered the UK’s largest book trade and publishing event, took place between March 12th and March 14th, hosting numerous talks with some familiar faces.

Read: London Book Fair 2023: Colson Whitehead, class and community

Free expression and protecting the right to dissent

However, it was overshadowed by some contentious issues affecting the world at the moment and, in turn, the publishing industry. The first event that How To Be Books attended focused on free expression and protecting the right to dissent, featuring novelist and playwright Guy Gunaratne, Durham University professor and former Edinburgh International Book Festival director Nick Barley, and Faber & Faber publishing director Hannah Knowles. Moderated by The Literary Consultancy director and English PEN vice chair Aki Schilz, the panel discussed the challenges associated with feeling inhibited when sharing personal views.

Gunaratne, the author of the International Dylan Thomas Prize-winning “In Our Mad and Furious City,” noted that on social media, it has sometimes “got easier to speak your mind publicly,” while, at the same time, in formal settings such as the fair, “this feels like a difficult time.”

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Barley, who is no stranger to backlash, described how the 2023 Edinburgh Book Festival faced opposition due to its ties with the investment company Baillie Gifford, which has been accused of investing in fossil fuels. This led authors, including Gunaratne, to issue a public statement expressing their concerns about greenwashing. Barley hinted that he did not personally feel attacked by the situation but admitted that he agreed Baillie Gifford “should do everything it can to change its investments.”

He informed listeners that he had spoken to the firm’s owners, but ultimately, the decision rested with the pensioners who chose how their savings were invested. Barley explained, “The public pensioners of Florida; nurses, ambulance drivers and refuse collectors in Florida ask for their pension to be invested in certain ways. And if they don’t ask for it to be invested ethically, then Baillie Gifford is legally obliged to invest in certain ways that they are quietly trying to change. And the law says they must do that.” Ultimately, Barley stated that writers have the right to criticise any organisers and that they never attempted to obstruct them.

Read: Women of colour still underrepresented in publishing

Knowles brought up another side to publishing, which was the inability to address the inclusion of people with disabilities. In an article entitled “Inconvenient Truths,” Knowles mentioned that “disabled employees should not have to feel grateful to companies for making it possible to work within publishing.” However, she argued that disabled people found it difficult to speak up for themselves at work due to senior executives not listening to individual needs. She told the room, “It was interesting, it was more the silence that was kind of fascinating rather than the backlash. I think people have not wanted to talk about it, which I’m sure we’ve all experienced on various issues.”

Ironically, moments after the session ended, I found myself unable to attend the main author event with Taylor Jenkins Reid on the primary stage due to a malfunctioning lift. Instead, we were relegated to watching a streamed version of the interview in a separate room that required headphones, even though I needed to record and transcribe the event. This situation only reinforced Knowles’ observation about the publishing industry feeling as though “it wouldn’t happen here,” yet it still does.

How I write: authors share their techniques amid technology challenges

At a subsequent meeting, children’s author and podcast host Joe Haddow was joined by broadcaster Gavin Esler, poet and playwright Lemn Sissay OBE, and award-winning author Kit de Waal. The group discussed a range of writing techniques, including insights from Julia Cameron’s seminal work “The Artist’s Way,” exploring new ways to be creative, and addressing the challenges and distractions posed by technology.

Sissay, who wrote the deeply moving memoir “My Name is Why,” talked about how social media is at its roots “a creative outlet.” He believes that this “new publisher in the sky works in words and images and it’s a wonderful gift.” The Sunday Times bestselling author added that it has allowed the likes of TikTok poet Len Pennie and Instagram icon Rupi Kaur to become successful, whilst “challenging the canon.” He called for creatives to lean into this technology, reminding us that: “No AI will ever replicate you – it may do something better, but it won’t replicate you.”

Read: Authors’ pirated books used to train Generative AI

Esler urged people to become ‘media literate,’ and ask questions such as; ‘Who’s telling me this?’, ‘Why are they telling me this?’, ‘Who’s paying them to tell me this?’, and ‘What should I think about what they’re telling?’ He explained that children in Finland are now learning about news literacy in schools and criticised governments for not considering the long-term effects. The veteran journalist stated, “We live in a society which barely thinks the next day’s headline and that includes people in leadership positions. And I just wish they would think: What am I building for the next generation?”

De Waal, a professor and the Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University, talked about social media and the Internet being a significant distraction, having stopped using the platform X. Calling it a “cesspool,” she said the danger was that it “feeds you what you want to hear.”

Palestine, Israel, and free expression in the UK

Literally, a hundred people waited in line to hear the final event at the English PEN Salon, titled “Palestine, Israel, and Free Expression in the UK.” People scrambled for at least 30 minutes just to secure a spot in the small venue. Discussing the impact of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, particularly the most violent aspects of both the opposition to it and its enforcement, has always been challenging in the UK. The organisers of the literary human rights charity stated that freedom of expression on this topic had become even more restricted following the atrocities of the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and the ongoing Israeli bombardment and devastation of Gaza.

The panel included British Palestinian writer Selma Dabbagh, Oxford University Emeritus Professor of International Relations Avi Shlaim, Palestine Festival of Literature producer Yasmin El-Rifae, and British Society of Middle Eastern Studies Vice President Professor Neve Gordon. The discussion focused on the cancellation of Palestinian artists in the country, with Dabbagh and El-Rifae presenting stark examples, including the cancellation of the British Bristol Palestinian Film Festival by venues such as Arnold Feeney in Bristol just one week before its scheduled date. Dabbagh questioned, “How can you have the art sector without a political edge to it?” She noted, as a lawyer, that she has observed that “everything is being tested around freedom of expression.”

Read: Viet Thanh Nguyen among writers cancelled over Israel war

El-Rifae further stated that there was a “tendency to limit Palestinians to speaking about their suffering, victimhood, and victimisation,” while simultaneously cancelling, firing, and investigating citizens the moment they push back against the narrative opposing Zionism.

Iraqi Jewish Professor Shlaim said that the UK has had a longstanding problem with freedom of speech when it comes to Israel and Palestine. He clarified: “The problem has been, and also the climate of opinion favours Israel and British Jews, and it’s very hostile to Palestinians and Muslims.

“You can look at the Tory party, and there is an ideological division within the Tory party between the majority, who regard Israel as part of us, as part of Judeo-Christian civilization, and Muslims as the other outsiders,” he elucidated, and as a result, it is seen as a “threat to the British way of life.”

Read: Writers Against War on Gaza: thousands support letter

He also criticised the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which is largely supported by UK institutions, as being “weaponised in order to silence free speech on Israel.” He mentioned that because of his views on this matter, his event at Liverpool Hope University was postponed.

In addition to being an author, Professor Gordon teaches Human Rights and the Laws of War at Queen Mary University in London. He stated that in the UK, there is a “multilayered apparatus” that begins with the IHRA definition, which conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism or harsh criticism of Israel. On the other hand, he alluded that his own children had experienced anti-Semitism in their East London school. He continued: “What they (IHRA) are targeting here is not anti-Semitism. And actually, they’re deflecting the fight against the real anti-Semitism in order to fight anyone that is critical of Israel.”

In the end, organisations such as Amnesty International and various publishers were asked to reflect on their role in this catastrophe and to hold establishments accountable for de-platforming Palestinian and pro-Palestinian writers. However, Daniel Gornan, the director of English PEN and chair of the event, explicitly highlighted that there were no constraints from the London Book Fair on holding such an event, expressing his acknowledgement by saying that he was “really grateful to them for that.”