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Islington Tribune - by PETER GRUNER
Published: 31 October 2008

Iain Sinclair

Book launch ban author told: We’ve got venue for you

Islington invitation to writer in Olympics row

A WRITER who has had a book launch banned from a Hackney library because of his controversial views on the 2012 Olympics has been offered an alternative venue in Islington.
Iain Sinclair was to launch his latest book, Hackney That Rose Red Empire, at his local library in Stoke Newington but the invitation was withdrawn following his fierce attack on the 2012 Olympic Games in the London Review of Books in June.
Now Lib Dem-controlled Islington Council is offering Mildmay Library, close to where Mr Sinclair lives, as a venue for the book launch in February next year.
The acclaimed author told the Tribune this week he welcomed the invitation and said he would be in touch with the council’s Lib Dem executive member for leisure, Councillor Ruth Polling.
He added: “I’d be quite happy for the launch to take place at Mildmay. I haven’t been in there for a while so I’ll pop by and have a look at it.
“It is important for published writers to support and promote their local libraries. I was offering to do the launch for nothing because it was my library and I want to support it. That’s why I’m still shocked by Hackney’s decision to pull out.”
He admitted his article on the Olympics was “off message” but added: “To ban an author on the basis that you don’t like what he says is tantamount to censorship. Hackney has said that you can’t have a controversial local issue discussed in a library, which kind of knocks most books on the head.”
Mr Sinclair added that he would have welcomed a debate about the Olympics. “They could put the positive side,” he said. “But there have been no offers from Hackney.”
His new book charts the history of Hackney, where he has lived for 40 years. “It’s certainly not a negative book,” he said. “I wouldn’t have lived here all that time if I felt negative about the borough.”
He had heard that an independent bookshop in Stratford, east London, wanted to stage an event around the book. “But the Mayor of Newham isn’t happy because that’s an Olympic borough,” he said.
Cllr Polling called Hackney’s decision “deeply troubling”. She said: “Banning an author from speaking because of his views about the government’s incompetence is monstrous.
“But what’s worse is the Labour council’s blanket statement that controversial opinions are no longer welcome in their libraries. Libraries should be a place for discourse and free thinking.”
A Hackney Council spokesman said it had been considered inappropriate to launch the book in a council-owned library “as we do not wish it to appear that the council condones or shares opinions expressed within the book”.
He added: “The same decision would be taken about launching any book expressing controversial or political opinions from a council-owned facility.”
The council was happy to advise Mr Sinclair’s publishers on more suitable venues, such as independent bookshops, he added. The book itself would be available in Hackney libraries.

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