MARLBOROUGH LitFest chairman Jan Williamson has agreed authors should be paid for their appearances after Philip Pullman quit this week as patron of Oxford Literary Festival over lack of pay for writers.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Pullman said: "Because of the Oxford Literary Festival's attitude to paying speakers (they don't) I can't remain as a patron any longer.

"I've resigned."

In response to this, Mrs Williamson, Marlborough LitFest chairman, has stated that all the authors who attend the festival in Marlborough, which takes place September 30 to October 2 this year, are always and have always been given a fee.

She said: “We've always paid our authors right from the beginning. We believe we should as we're asking them to do a job and they may need to prepare and take time away from writing.

“We also pay our chairs and interviewers for the same reason. It's important to us as a literary festival because we value our authors and it’s not fair to ask them to do it for nothing.

“No one on the LitFest Committee is paid and we rely on volunteers to help us during the festival. About 50 per cent of our income is from sponsors and Friends of the Festival. The rest is money from ticket sales. We're a charity and we manage our money carefully.”

Speaking to Oxford Mail, one of the Gazette’s sister titles, Mr Pullman, the author of His Dark Materials trilogy, said the electricians, people who put up marquees and sell food at the Oxford festival are paid, but not the writers which is “ridiculous”.

He added: "Writers are not on salaries. When they step away from their desks and stop putting words to paper, they are not earning money.

"The best and most sensible festivals do pay the authors who come to speak and they always have.”

Mr Pullman has been a patron for more than 10 years of the event which started in 1997. However, the Oxford Literary Festival organisers said paying speakers would mean they would be forced to substantially reduce the number and variety of people who appeared at the event.