Back to school

Later this month I’ll be embarking on a new adventure – as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, based at the University of Exeter. My mission? To help students with every aspect of writing, from writer’s block to structuring an essay, from grammar to syntax to punctuation - and everything in between.

It’s quite an honour: the RLF has been in business since 1790, supporting professional writers, and fostering an appreciation of the written word in schools, universities and the wider world. Among a dazzling list of benefactors is A.A. Milne, who left the RLF a portion of his royalties (thank you, Winnie-the-Pooh). Over the years, the charity has come to the rescue of dozens of literary greats, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Edna O’Brien and Mervyn Peake.

I’m part of the RLF Education programme, which has been operating since 1999 and places writers at universities and colleges all over the country. Every Tuesday and Wednesday during term time, you’ll find me in a covetable corner office in Queen’s Building on the Streatham Campus, trying to help students unravel writing problems and improve their prose style. According to the Fellows I’ve met – a very friendly bunch – the main task is to encourage clarity of thought and simplicity of language.

Students may come from any discipline, so I’m going to learn a lot about subjects that are totally new to me. And in order to be allowed on campus, I’ve had to study ‘modules’ in health and safety, diversity and inclusion, information governance and safeguarding: a crash course in modern academic life.

You can find out more about the RLF here and the RLF Fellowship scheme here. In the meantime, I’m going to print out an inspiring quotation from Pooh’s Little Instruction Book to place above my desk: ‘It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like, ‘What about lunch?’'

Photo of Streatham Campus, Exeter University/Pierre Terre, Wikimedia Commons