I recently received a grant from the Royal Literary Fund. I was very pleased about this. Like many other people, I've been struggling recently. Also, although my writing career has now spanned thirty-five years, it's probably the only time any British literary institution has acknowledged my existence. Major literary events are not clamouring for my participation. So I sort of felt validated by the award. I suppose I shouldn't need to feel validated but I did anyway. The Royal Literary Fund doesn't require you to make any grant they give you public knowledge but I'm mentioning it anyway because I'm grateful to them, and they were nice to deal with. Also, to let any struggling authors known that they're an institution who are worth applying to if you could use some help.
