Over the weekend John Dougherty, Chair of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group, led SoA members in a drive to raise money for the Syrian refugee crisis.

The New Visions Conference for children’s writers and illustrators took place this weekend from 5-6 September and was attended by authors from all over the country. Inspired by a fundraiser started by author and SoA member Patrick Ness, Dougherty took pledges from members of the Society of Authors to be donated to Save the Children in aid of the refugee crisis in Syria. The pledges totalled over £3,000.

A substantial number of SoA members have made donations, recently including our President, Philip Pullman, following his presentation to the New Visions Conference on Saturday night.

If you would like to donate to Ness’s fundraiser you can do so online here, tagging your donation as ‘SoA New Visions‘. Including Gift Aid, the campaign has so far raised over £500,000, and several large publishers have made pledges to match donations for an even greater total.

In addition, the Big Green Bookshop is appealing for book donations which will be brought to the migrant camp in Calais.