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A WELSH author has launched a bitter attack on taxpayer-funding for writers in Wales, calling for the money to be diverted to cash-strapped health and education budgets.
Julian Ruck said that subsidies for Welsh authors and publishing houses stifled quality as writers were not forced to hone their craft with readers in mind.
He said that since the 1950s there had not been "one single Welsh writer of any national or international note".
In a speech to a literary festival yesterday, he revealed figures showing pounds 4m of public money had been paid to authors and publishing houses through Literature Wales and the Welsh Books Council in the last four years.
He said: "The Welsh publishing industry is nothing more than a parasitical, elitist carbuncle on the hide of a struggling Welsh economy.
"Of course one will never obtain sales figures for the winning works."
His speech last night was at the closing of the Kidwell-e Festival - UK's first literary event celebrating the e-book and its growing popularity.
Ruck, who privately funded the event, was scathing about the quality of writing that the...