COMEDIAN and author Russell Brand has officially backed the campaign to save Thurrock Libraries.

Brand, fresh from being named one of Debrett's 500 most influential people in the UK, spoke exclusively with the Gazette and told us why library services must be maintained – at all costs.

Mr Brand, 39, who grew up in Grays and whose mum still lives here, said: “I think it’s out of order – I heard through my mate’s mum, she works down that library. The way I feel about it is this, we don’t want people or children learning only from the TV or internet. I think cutting £500,000 from the budget is shocking.”

Speaking of the struggle to get his career started, Brand described the key role libraries played in making his dreams a reality.

He said: “Grays library helped me massively before my drama school auditions. I would go there to take out Shakespeare videos because I didn’t like learning the speeches from the book, so I would watch the dialogue and learn it off by heart.

“I also used the computers to apply for community funding to support my drama school application – so I could fund my way through college. I would never have made it through drama school without libraries.”

He added: “I also used to go to read the newspapers. The first time I ever did a play for my school, and the first time I made an audience laugh was at Thameside Theatre.”

He added: “The arts are a right not a privilege and that is being slowly eroded. Books are sacred – and we need sacred spaces.”