Young fellows replace old white males at literary society

THE Royal Society of Literature has ditched its “white, male, metropolitan and middle-class” history with the appointment of 40 new writing fellows all under the age of 40.

The initiative was prompted by just three of the 523 fellows of the society being under 40, and none was under 30. Indeed, the average age was 70.

Publishers, literary agents, theatres and author organisations put forward an array of names to a panel of RSL fellows. Among those chosen are awardwinning Jamaican poet Kei Miller and bestselling English novelist Sarah Perry.

Blake Morrison, the author and critic, who sat on the panel, told the Guardian: “For much of its history, the RSL has been overwhelmingly white, male, metropolitan and middle-class. But literary culture is changing rapidly and our choices reflect that.”