ORGANISERS of the Oxford Literary Festival are to consider paying speakers after Philip Pullman publicly resigned as patron over the issue.

The Cumnor-based author of fantasy book series His Dark Materials stepped down because of the festival's policy not to pay writers and speakers who appear at the event.

But in a statement this morning, a festival spokesman said: "The Oxford Literary Festival recognises and understands the strength of feeling in the literary community regarding the payment of speaker fees to authors and writers and we are sympathetic to this cause.

"Once April’s Festival is over, we will meet with all interested parties to discuss how to achieve payment of fees for all speakers while safe-guarding the presence of our record-levels of unknown writers for 2017 and beyond.

"We acknowledge that Philip Pullman has been an extraordinary supporter and ally of the Festival in his role as Patron, appearing on our platforms on many occasions and receiving the Festival’s Honorary Fellowship in 2013. 

"We have always had enormous respect for his views and commitment, and we thank him sincerely for all he has done for us."

It comes after Mr Pullman branded the policy not to pay speakers "ridiculous", in comments to the Oxford Mail last week.

This morning he said he was "very pleased" by the latest announcement, but stopped short of saying he would become involved with the festival again.

Mr Pullman is president of the Society of Authors, which is campaigning for writers to be paid for their speaking engagements.

He added: "Paying speakers is a cost that should be built-in from the very start.

"Once that is sorted, then we would be on a different basis."

The festival is a registered charity that does not receive public funding and is supported by 40 unpaid volunteers, with no full time staff, the statement added.

It said spending £75,000 paying about 500 speakers - about £150 each - would mean a 15 per cent increase in its costs.

Last year it made a loss of £18,000.