Royal Society of Literature chiefs quit after free speech row after being accused of ‘dumbing down’ the charity

The joint-chiefs of the Royal Society of Literature have resigned after being accused of “dumbing down” the group.

Chairman Daljit Nagra and director Molly Rosenberg stepped down from their positions its annual general meeting, at which fellows had intended call for their departure.

Former leaders and key figures in the 205-year-old charity have been highly critical of the society’s management during the past year.

The charity was accused of failing to defend writers under physical or online attack including Salman Rushdie and Kate Clanchy, and there were claims that the society’s in-house Review had been censored over an article critical of Israel.

Nagra said he was “proud to have overseen the first ever governance review in our history” which he said would “increase transparency for the future.”

Rosenberg said: “I am hugely proud of all that I have achieved in my time at the RSL, working for and with brilliant writers across the Fellowship.”

The society was founded in 1820 to “reward literary merit and excite literary talent”, with writers such as Coleridge, Yeats, and Eliot among its fellows.

Following Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the society decided to become less “formidably elitist” under the direction of Rosenberg.

The pair were accused of “dumbing down” the society through a series of reforms to diversify the “elitist” charity.

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Free speech has come under question under the pair’s leadership. In 2021 author and fellow Kate Clanchy was accused of using racial stereotypes in her memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.

The author was at the centre of a cancel culture row over terms used to describe children she had taught, such as “chocolate-coloured skin” and “almond-shaped eyes.”

The Royal Society was accused by Dame Marina and others of doing little to publicly support Clanchy after refusing to make a statement on the issue.

Further controversy swept the society in 2022 when The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie was stabbed and nearly killed on stage at an event in New York.

Following the attack, the society took days to release a public statement merely saying they were “sending strength” to the author, who was severely injured and lost an eye.

In 2023, the society’s management postponed publication of its annual Review allegedly due to concerns over an article mentioning Israel’s actions in Gaza and then sacked the publication’s popular and longstanding editor Maggie Fergusson.

The incident prompted a number of writers including McEwan and Alan Hollinghurst to write to the society, demanding that it refer itself to the charity commission over the alleged censorship which “plainly contravened fundamental literary values.”

Bernardine Evaristo, the Booker Prize winner and the society’s first black president said: “I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Molly and Daljit for their immense contribution to the society over many years.”