‘I’m horrified by it. I think it’s appalling’: Kit de Waal on the crisis of cuts facing the arts

Working-class students will be worst hit by cuts to arts and humanities education, says author Kit de Waal, who believes the government is “presenting the subjects as second best”. The writer of bestseller My Name Is Leon says she is “appalled” that the government’s promotion of Stem subjects has coincided with, she believes, arts being viewed as “some sort of frippery”.

“It has been presented by this government as second best, as the soft subject. It’s not promoted, it’s not valued,” says De Waal from her office at the top of the Attenborough building at the University of Leicester, where she recently became the first Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence.

“The jobs that come with it are being denigrated and seen as second-class jobs. The courses are being cut to the bone.”

De Waal knows how difficult the industry can be to get into, especially if you take an untraditional route. She left school at 15 and later worked in criminal and family law for 15 years, before she went to university to study creative writing at the age of 52. She published My Name Is Leon, her debut novel, three years later.

It is one of the reasons why she is so keen to help aspiring writers through her work at Leicester, where she also teaches on the Creative Writing MA course. “The people that are going to be the worst hit by this will be working-class students, because those who have the safety net of family money, or networking connections, will be able to still afford to do it, or travel to do it,” she says.

“Art is essential, and I think it’s really important we keep saying that to those students who think: ‘Oh my God, I might as well just bury my creativity and go and get a job that will pay the bills.’”

De Waal says she is rubbish at maths, and doesn’t dispute Rishi Sunak’s plans to make it compulsory for all school pupils to study the subject in some form up to the age of 18, rather than the current minimum of 16.

But it makes her angry that, at the same time, university cuts have fallen largely on arts and humanities departments and applicants for English degrees have sharply declined in recent years.

Last month the University of East Anglia, home to a world-renowned creative writing course, announced it was cutting 36 academic jobs, with 31 of these in arts and humanities. Alumni of the university include Ian McEwan and the Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro.

“I’m horrified by it. I think it’s appalling,” says De Waal. “And also deeply unappreciative of what you get from a creative writer. Thank God there are still universities promoting creative writing against the odds.

“Of course we need Stem subjects, but let’s not denigrate the thing that explains life itself to us. I have zero faith in this government turning this around. We will see the terrible results of what is happening now in 10 years’ time, when we don’t have the same level of arts and culture in this country.”

Born in Birmingham to an Irish mother and a Caribbean father, De Waal has duel British and Irish citizenship. “It is very, very different in Ireland,” she says. “The appreciation for the arts is still alive and kicking. We could be like that, with the right political will.”

Later this month she will be speaking at Primadonna festival, now in its fifth year, which she co-founded along with Sandi Toksvig, Catherine Mayer and Jude Kelly.

Branded as “a book festival for people who don’t think book festivals are for them”, De Waal says the idea was to create an event that was more inclusive for writers and readers.

This year’s event, at the Food Museum in Stowmarket, Suffolk, will feature writers including Daisy Buchanan, Angela Saini and Emma Kennedy in a weekend timetable of conversations, roundtables and interviews, along with live music, comedy, food and DJs.

“The festival is our way of helping and having open arms towards people, welcoming them to literature,” she says.

“It is very different from the usual literary festival – we like to think it’s more inclusive in the sense that everybody is celebrated, everyone can come. Literary festivals are great, and they make a huge effort to be inclusive and attract different people every year. But I think Primadonna does it differently, by having that as the aim of the festival.”

While still committed to her own work, De Waal says she couldn’t imagine not using her voice to help others into the industry, especially in light of the current challenges.

“You don’t just wake up one day and become a brilliant writer, or a brilliant musician, or a brilliant film-maker,” she says. “First, you’ve got to want to do it, and then you start doing it, either being mentored by someone or doing a course, the steps to excellence.

“Then the excellence is on your bookshelf, or it’s on your record player, or it’s on at the cinema. Culture doesn’t happen by accident.”