42 Writers for Liberty

The 42 Writers for Liberty website is part of Liberty's urgent campaign, 'Charge or Release'. The campaign opposes the Government's current proposals to extend pre-charge detention in terrorism cases from 28 to 42 days.

The site is constructed as a calendar to illustrate graphically the sheer length of time it is proposed that a person be held without being charged with any offence. Simply click on a day to open up a text from one of the 42 writers who have contributed to the project. You may find a story, an essay, a poem, a statement or even an interview - all a response to the simple question 'What do you think of the proposed extension to 42 Days?'

It is a measure of the unpopularity of the proposed legislation that not a single writer declined to contribute on the grounds that they in fact supported it. Whereas 42 of the best novelists, essayists, memoirists, poets and journalists around sent us the uniquely powerful contributions you will read on this site.

To view the calendar, please click here.