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If you love reading, we are your Society - uniquely devoted to promoting and extending the knowledge and love of English literature, its rich past and its vibrant present.”
Colin Thubron, President
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The RSL offers the best, and best value, programme of literary talks and discussions in London – a unique blend of seriousness and lively comment.”
Maggie Gee
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The RSL Review is packed with interviews, essays and photographs that you don’t find anywhere else in the press – an original, serious, and entertainingly offbeat record of our finest writers and writing.”
Margaret Drabble
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I hugely enjoy my membership, which allows me to go to lots of wonderful events, meet writers, listen, argue, laugh and celebrate books for only £50 a year.”
Xandra Bingley, RSL member
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People need to feel in their bones that the whole of English literature from Beowulf to Byron to Benjamin Zephaniah is theirs by right of inheritance. The RSL shows people what belongs to them, and welcomes them into it.”
Philip Pullman
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Britain’s literature, past and present, is unrivalled, and the RSL is the only organisation devoted to ensuring that it remains so. Its work has never been more important.”
Michael Holroyd, President Emeritus
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Becoming a Fellow of the RSL is an honour like no other. We are are elected not by some faceless bureaucratic committee but by our fellow writers and professional peers. Fellowship means everything to me.”
Victoria Glendinning
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The RSL seizes every opportunity to present the case for literature and authors, and in particular the absolute necessity of a well-funded Public Lending Right, and the collective management of those secondary rights which writers cannot exercise by themselves.”
Maureen Duffy
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Ali Smith’s recent masterclass opened my eyes to the endless possibilities that seemingly simple tasks could bring to my writing, and helped me overcome my reluctance of sharing my work. Having a world-class author comment on my work was fantastic.
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Priya Khanchandani, Masterclass participant
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Winning the RSL Jerwood Award for Non-Fiction was doubly wonderful. The list of past winners is full of original, enticing titles, so it was fantastic to be selected. It is also a generous award which has allowed me to carry out research I could never otherwise have managed.
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Alexander Monro, RSL Jerwood 10k award winner for The Paper Trail
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The John Clare evening was so wonderful that I skipped home from the tube after it. Tom Durham’s reading of the poems was fantastic, and when he recited 'I am' it nearly made me cry.”
Yasmin, sixth former from Streatham High School
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I am so grateful to the RSL for arranging for our kids to read next to Philip Pullman. One teacher the next morning said, 'I could just feel their horizons expanding as they sat there'.”
Katie Waldegrave, Executive Director of First Story
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In recent years the RSL has placed itself at the centre of debate on culture and education. Its events have become noted for bringing readers and writers together in lively engagement.”
Hilary Mantel
*Fellows and Members can now book events online.*
Founded by George IV in 1820, the RSL nurtures, celebrates and defends all that is best in British literature, past and present. We organize talks, discussions and readings; make awards to established and emerging writers; run a series of creative writing Masterclasses in collaboration with the Booker Prize Foundation; and campaign in the interest of writers.
At the heart of the Society is its Fellowship, which has always encompassed the most distinguished writers in the English language.
Although Fellows are elected to the Society, anyone can become a Member. Our events are open to all, and recordings of them are available as audio files on this website.
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