Booker winner backs climate protesters
BOOKER PRIZE-WINNER Margaret Atwood has said literary awards will be irrelevant unless action is taken over the environment.
The Canadian author was jointly awarded the prestigious prize for The Testaments, and wore the badge of Extinction Rebellion as she accepted the honour.
The news came as Extinction Rebellion activists were launching legal action against the police over a London-wide ban on their protests.
Showing solidarity in turn by wearing the protest group’s hourglass symbol, the veteran author said environmental crises will affect lives within a generation and has supported international calls for action.
She added that her own most recent literary honour – her second Booker Prize following a win for The Blind Assassin in 2000 – will be an irrelevance in a world riven by environmental problems.
Atwood, 79, said: “Extinction Rebellion? I’m very happy to see them show up after all these years. Because the biologists and people in the environmental field have been saying this for a very long time.”
Atwood was named the joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize along with British author Bernardine Evaristo, who explored the lives of black women in her work Girl, Woman, Other.
The splitting of the prize represented a rebellion from judges, headed by Hay Festival founder Peter Florence, who broke the rules to divide the £50,000 award.
Extinction Rebellion criticised police over a London-wide ban on their protests.
The move comes amid growing criticism of the ban, made under public order legislation already used to restrict the action to Trafalgar Square.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who oversees the force, said he would ask for more information over the ban.
Extinction Rebellion? I’m happy to see them show up after all these years. Canadian author Margaret Atwood.