Chiswick Book Festival Donates £9000 To Charities

Chiswick Book Festival Donates £9000 To Charities

Chiswick Book Festival has donated a total of £9000 to three charities that it supports with funds raised from the 2018 festival. Festival Director Torin Douglas presented the three charities with cheques for £3000 each at a ceremony at St Michael and All Angels Church in Chiswick. RNIB, InterAct Stroke Support and Doorstep Library were all grateful recipients of funds from the festival.

The 2018 festival had record crowds and sold around 4000 tickets with over 300 in St Michael & All Angels Church for Max Hastings and around 175 each for Charles Spencer, Misha Glenny and Anthony Horowitz.

Chiswick House saw a capacity crowd of 200 for ‘Vanity Fair, Thackeray and Chiswick’.

In addition, the Cookbook Festival launched as a new innovation alongside the Chiswick Book Festival.

“St Michael’s has been at the heart of the community for 140 years, not least through events such as the Chiswick Book Festival” said Torin Douglas. “These cheques represent just part of the money the church raises each year for charities, supported by local residents and local businesses.”

Krista Dixon, Area Fundraising Manager London, for RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People), said: “This donation of £3,000 is fantastic news at the start of the year. Like the previous gifts from the Chiswick Book Festival, it will go towards the recording of one of our Talking Books, which give free access to over 25,000 fiction and non fiction books for adults and children.” You can find out more about the work of the RNIB at https://www.rnib.org.uk/

Nirjay Mahindru, chief executive of InterAct Stroke Support, which employs actors to read to stroke patients in Charing Cross Hospital, said: “The donation is effectively 100 two-hour sessions of our work paid for at Charing Cross.  We cannot thank the wonderful book festival enough.” To find out more about the work of InterAct Stroke Support check out their website https://www.interactstrokesupport.org/

Judah Urch-Grear, Fundraising Officer for Doorstep Library, which brings the magic of reading into the homes of families in disadvantaged areas of London, said: “It is wonderful news. The book festival is clearly going from strength to strength and we are delighted to be a part of it.” Discover more about the work of Doorstep Library at http://www.doorsteplibrary.org.uk/ and watch our video HERE

To mark its anniversary, St Michael & All Angels will be seeking more volunteers and donations for its arts, charity and community activities throughout the year, under the slogan “140 years serving Christ in the community”. For more than 50 years, it has organised the Bedford Park Festival and Green Days weekend and it will be celebrating the 140^th anniversary at this year’s Festival, which runs from June 7^th to June 23^rd.

Watch our interviews with the three charities, below.