The Arvon Blog

A lighthearted piece by Philip Cowell, Arvon’s marketing and development officer.

Arvon’s London office – where things like fundraising and events are managed as well as where advocacy and marketing take place – has moved to the new Free Word centre in London’s fashionable Farringdon. We’ve moved in to a new literature and freedom of expression house – the first of its kind in the UK. It’s a building for London, the UK and more internationally as well: a hub for writers and readers working at all the different stages and areas in these interesting, and in many cases urgent, sectors, based on a Norweigian model of the same name – Fritt Ord.

The building hasn’t been officially opened yet – that comes in September – but the cafe is! Do come along and read a book with a cup of tea or meet a friend. And if you’re an Arvon Friend, or just interested in Arvon, buzz us and we’ll come down and say hello.

I just “wordled” the description of the Free Word centre on their website. A wordle is something like this – a visual representation of a piece of text, based on frequency of word use. It’s a great tool for writers, actually – particularly as it will show back to you how often you’re using a word, which might make you re-think (or not) your own words. Have a go at “wordling” your creative writing.  I think this is a lovely way to look at text – sideways, as it were, or perhaps more accurately from up above – as if we’re peering down from a skyscraper into the city of our text.

Everyone at Arvon is really excited about the potential of the new Free Word space – with its lecture hall, auditorium and gallery space – and we hope you are too. It’s the first time we have a front of house space in London to be able to talk to people about what we do in our special historic writing houses around the UK. For that reason alone it’s been worth the move.