Novelist Pat Barker hits out at 'fashionable' diversity schemes

Prize-winning author says she distrusts post-Brexit interest in regional and working-class voices

The Man Booker prize-winning author Pat Barker says she “distrusts” London publishing’s recent burst in diversity initiatives, calling the rise in interest in regional and working-class voices a “fashionable” move motivated by fear after the Brexit referendum.

Speaking at the Hay festival on Sunday, the Durham author said she had observed an increased appetite for authors based outside London, or from working-class and minority ethnic backgrounds, over the last three years.

Related: The loneliness of the working-class writer | Tim Lott

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