Edinburgh Festival Fringe: 'Fitting tribute' as mental heath award is sponsored in memory of arts journalist Tim Cornwell

Writer ‘was open about his mental health struggles’

The late Tim Cornwell, former arts correspondent at The Scotsman, who passed away last year.

A prize for the most compelling Edinburgh Festival Fringe show tackling the subject of mental health is to be awarded in memory of Tim Cornwell, the former arts correspondent at The Scotsman, who helped judge the award each year.

The Cornwell Charitable Trust, which was set up by his family, is to support the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award for the next three years.

Tim, who had lived with bipolar disorder, previously helped judge the award, which was instigated in 2017 and is supported by The Scotsman as part of its coverage of Edinburgh’s festivals.

The late Tim Cornwell, former arts correspondent at The Scotsman, who passed away last year.

Tim died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism in June 2022 just after finishing editing a collection of letters by his father, the author John le Carré, who died in 2020.

He worked for The Scotsman as a foreign correspondent in the United States, then moved to Edinburgh to take up the role of deputy foreign editor, then arts correspondent.

Although Tim left The Scotsman in 2012, he continued to write for the paper as a freelance, including as a key contributor to its coverage of Edinburgh’s festivals.

When the Mental Health Foundation, which stages the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, first announced plans for its Fringe award, it said it wanted to encourage artists to make work exploring the subject of mental health.Shows from all categories across the programme are eligible for the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award, the winner of which is announced during the last week of the festival, at the annual Scotsman Fringe Awards ceremony.

Tim Cornwell was a dogged foreign correspondent before he became an arts writer. Picture: Neil Hanna

Andrew Eaton-Lewis, arts programme officer at the Mental Health Foundation, said: “Tim was a terrific and often underrated writer, on almost any subject you could think of.

“He was also very open about his mental health struggles. He was a valued member of the judging panel for the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award, a task to which he brought both his personal insights and his many years of experience as an arts journalist.

"We are very grateful to the Cornwell Charitable Trust for offering to support this award.

"It feels like a fitting tribute, celebrating both Tim’s long relationship with the Fringe and his achievements in reducing the stigma around mental health.”An official announcement from the Mental Health Foundation about the support from the Cornwell Charitable Trust stated: "Mental health has become an increasingly prominent theme at the Fringe over the past few years, with more and more artists making brave, honest and boundary-pushing work on the subject.

“The Mental Health Foundation set up its annual award in order to recognise, support and encourage new creative work that challenges stigma, asks difficult questions, and opens up conversations.”

In a statement about its support of the prize, the trust said: “At this time when so many in the UK are experiencing psychological and emotional difficulty, the Cornwell Charitable Trust is very happy to support the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award.”

More than 50 shows were nominated for the first award, which was won by Kane Power Theatre’s show Mental in 2017. Subsequent winners have included Electrolyte by Wildcard, All of Me by Caroline Horton and Manic Street Creature by Maimuna Memon.