The National Lottery has been with us since 1994 and has had an immense effect on public life. The millionaires it has created might have had mixed fortunes – the sudden receipt of vast sums of money by ‘lucky’ winners often seems to bring a peculiar unhappiness – but nearly all the population has benefited in some way or other through its good causes.
One such cause has been the arts, and the subject of this book is how the Arts Council of England dealt in the early years with the quantity of money that suddenly flowed into it, which at first could only be spent on capital projects. A personal memoir from one who was deeply involved in its distribution, ‘Capital Gains’ tells of the successes and challenges at a time of plenty that is unlikely to be repeated. |