Arvon appoints Andrew Kidd as Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Arvon is delighted to announce that  Andrew Kidd  has been appointed as its new Chief Executive and Artistic Director. Andrew Kidd is the former Publisher of Picador, former Managing Director of Aitken Alexander Associates literary agency, the co-founder of Alexi Books and the co-founder and Chair of the Folio Academy Foundation/Rathbones Folio Prize, for which increased funding was secured last week.

Andrew succeeds Ruth Borthwick, who has been the Chief Executive at Arvon for ten years. During that time she has overseen a significant development of the charity’s work, including a major renovation of its Shropshire centre, an expansion of its work with teachers and a new digital programme.

Andrew Kidd: “I have long admired Arvon for the open-hearted way it engages everyone – from disadvantaged school children to dedicated writers – in the creative process, offering them the chance to liberate their imaginations and find a voice. That Ruth Borthwick leaves behind her a flourishing charity, overseen by such a talented and committed team, is a testament to her amazing work over the last ten years. I am honoured and excited to have an opportunity to build on that legacy as I work with my new colleagues, together with Arvon’s trustees and supporters, to connect with as many people from as many different backgrounds as possible, and to further develop Arvon’s range, resources and innovative programming.”

Jeremy Treglown, Chair of Arvon: “We have a big capital project to get cracking on at Ted Hughes’s old Pennine house, Lumb Bank, work to do on our other writing centres in Devon and Shropshire, and a programme brimming over with stimulating courses.

Arvon’s trustees and senior management team are thrilled that Andrew Kidd joins us at this crucial moment in the 50-year-old charity’s history. If anyone has the energy, the intelligence, the imagination and connections to succeed Ruth Borthwick, it’s him.”

Andrew Kidd biography:

Andrew Kidd had a fourteen-year career in publishing, first at Penguin, where he was Editorial Director for Viking and Hamish Hamilton, and latterly as Publisher for Picador and Macmillan. He then spent six years as a literary agent, as Managing Director of Aitken Alexander Associates. In 2013 he co-founded what is now known as the Rathbones Folio Prize, a literary charity for which he remains chair of the trustees; and in 2014 he co-founded Alexi, an award-winning digital book discovery and reading app.