Only posh people will be writing books if you close down libraries, warns romance novelist Colgan

One of Scotland’s bestselling authors, Jenny Colgan, has warned the closure of Scots libraries will result in ‘only posh people’ writing books.

The romance novelist, 52, has written more than 40 novels and sold over 12 million books, said there are ‘no authors without libraries’.

She pointed out some of the country’s leading writers, including herself alongside Val McDermid and Sir Ian Rankin had been ‘library kids’ growing up.

Ms Colgan spoke out after it emerged 13 libraries in Aberdeenshire are to close by the end of the year because of declining use and deteriorating buildings.

She also slammed a decision to remove reading a whole book from the school curriculum insisting the experience of enjoying a book from cover to cover was ‘incredibly important’.

The author told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘I would say “no libraries, no authors”, because that’s where it starts.

‘I was a library kid, Val McDermid was a library kid, Ian Rankin, we’re all library kids. Unless you only want posh people writing books {you need libraries}.’

A petition has been launched to save the libraries in Aberdeenshire but research by the broadcaster suggests over 180 libraries across the UK have either closed their doors or been handed over to volunteers to run since 2016.

Author Jenny Colgan has warned against Library closures

It also found these closures were more likely to happen in deprived communities.

Ms Colgan said: ‘People don’t just use libraries for books, they use them for musical instruments, for toys and for an awful lot of people they use them for the internet. 

If you go into any local library you will see people who maybe don’t have access or can’t afford it or are struggling to look for work and you will see those terminals being used.

‘They’re an incredibly important resource. But more than that, we are realising more and more that leaving children to nothing more than phone devices is not terribly good for them. I think in 20 years we’ll be labelling it like cigarettes.

‘They’ve taken reading a whole book off the curriculum in Scotland for reasons of their own, and now they’re just continually making the point that books don’t matter. 

In fact we know that having a level of very deep concentration in which you can finish and enjoy and read a book is incredibly important.’

She cited a recent survey that found people have ‘never been more bored’, adding: ‘People have everything and they have never been more bored because they have lost concentration.

‘I think that deep, long, intense experience you get with a book... Once you get into a really great book you realise it’s a really important experience.

Ms Colgan pointed out that Rebus author Ian Rankin had been a library kid in his youth

‘And reading with your children is not a hardship, it’s one of the loveliest things that you should be able to do.’

Ms Colgan was raised in Prestwick, Ayrshire, and now divides her time between Edinburgh and Aberdour, in Fife.

She also spends a lot of time in Scandinavia, where her romance books - dubbed ‘feelgood fiction’ - are hugely popular - and pointed out the likes of Norway authorities are investing in libraries rather than closing them down.

The novelist said: ‘Norway got all this money and made itself very rich, and the first thing it did was build world class libraries, facilities, in every town, it doesn’t matter how wee.’