From STEVE DEARDEN
I am at a bit of a loss to know what to say. Suffice to say this, I haven't really felt anything about NALD getting chopped because what has been keeping me awake at nights is thinking how people like you two and Paul Munden must be feeling. Life's work people. People you can't invent. People with contacts and experience it would take years to get back. People they'd be dreaming up crap camel producing schemes and initiatives to create were you not there (I know I have done a bit of that myself).
And what really pisses me off: people that have been fulfilling their priorities before ACE had even thought of them: poetry, translation (in Paul's case young people) for years, people who shaped the landscape.
There have been some good decisions but others like you, NAWE, Writers in Prisons, Litfest and, after all the money they invested in them through Thrive, Route, leave me staggered and angry.