14th July 2024
Over the last year, trustees have worked intensively to re-register the Hosking Houses Trust as a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). Originally registered in 1995 as a charity, active since 1999 and hosting residents continuously since 2002, the Hosking Houses Trust has inevitably developed as it gained experience and faced changing circumstances. Twenty-seven trustees, three chairs and four patrons have served the Trust, and they have all added to our quality. We are therefore seeking this new status that will re-define our purposes and give updated legal and advisory protection to our trustees, volunteers and residents. We expect to complete this process this calendar year.
A substantial bequest is being made to the Trust which will allow more property to be bought and utilised for the expanded use of our residents. This is expected to be finalised in the summer of 2024 and will be announced in detail at that time.
The Trust’s founder, Sarah Hosking, was included in the King’s Birthday Honours list for summer 2024 and awarded an MBE for services to literature and the arts. This is in recognition not only of her initiation of the Hosking Houses Trust but also for innovative work in the world of government arts subsidy during the 1970/80s and her work in the NHS on environmental issues.
31st December 2022
As the year ends we have a few happy announcements:
Our Open House Project now has an Artistic Director, Sarah Mullen. The project, funded by Arts Council England and also supported by the Amazon Literary Partnership and Writing West Midlands, will see ten emerging women writers participate in a programme that includes a week’s residency at Church Cottage, introductions to publishers and literary agents, mentoring, and training in public performance. Sarah Mullen was an ideal candidate given her background in establishing literary festivals and ownership of an independent bookshop, The Bookshop on the Green in Bournville, Birmingham. She has also established two literary charities and understands well the world of Hosking Houses Trust. We are delighted to welcome her to the Trust.
Management of the Trust’s residency programme is in new hands. Two women, both authors themselves and long associated with the Trust, Professor Louise Campbell and Elizabeth Speller, have taken on the task of publicising the residency scheme and selecting residents for 2023. In the new year, you should see announcements on this website about the new programme.
Three new trustees have joined the Trust this year: Helen Maclagan OBE and Carole Manship joined in May and Margo Galvin in the autumn (following the completion of her MA in Shakespeare and Theatre). All bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and skills and the Trust is in excellent hands as it moves into 2023. We were sorry to say goodbye to a number of retiring trustees and thank them for their service: Kate McLuskie and Teresa Howard, who were both long serving and influenced the development of the Trust; Mary Jane Baxter, Marion Fleetwood, Stefan Buczacki, Rachel Drake and Syan Kent.
12th July 2022
Sarah has been invested as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. See the picture story RSL Investiture.
6th July 2021
The Hosking Houses Trust is extremely proud to announce that our founder Sarah Hosking has been appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In addition, our Patron, Emma Thompson has been made a Fellow.
They are among the 15 new Honorary Fellows and 29 Fellows created this year (2021) by the RSL, which was founded in 1820 to act as a voice for the value of literature, to engage people in the written word and to encourage and honour writers.
Daljit Nagra, Chair of the RSL.
“In everything we do, the RSL works to bring writers and readers together, to draw people together in a shared love of literature, and through that sharing of great writing to enrich each other’s lives. The new Fellows and Honorary Fellows, alongside our Reading Together programme for young people, all pay testament to the vitality of writing in the UK and give a sign of what literature can do to shape society, and to change lives.”
Huge congratulations to both Sarah and Emma on this considerable honour.
For further information please visit the RSL website www.rsliterature.org