Richard Flanagan became the first author to win both the Booker Prize and the Baillie Gifford Prize, though his headline-hogging wasn’t for his literary talent. The Australian author, who won the £50,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for his memoir Question 7, declared that he refuses to take the prize money until the sponsors present a plan for them to cut down on their fossil fuel investments.
In a pre-recorded speech from the Tasmanian rainforest, Flanagan praised the sponsor’s support for literature but let his audience know climate change will not be defeated anytime soon. “The rainforests where I am camped tonight are existentially threatened by the climate crisis,” he said.
Flanagan, 63, pressed Baillie Gifford to take action on its statement it sees “no future in hydrocarbons” with increased investments in renewables. Although he commended the firm’s minimal involvement with fossil fuel extraction, he implored the firm to do more. “None of us are clean, all of us are complicit,” he said.
The apparently fossil fuel-friendly Baillie Gifford, in turn, congratulated him but invited further discussion. Flanagan has held his ground: The prize money is frozen until the change materializes.
