Good morning.
It would be an understatement to say the decision to rewrite potentially offensive passages of Roald Dahl’s children’s books has garnered some attention. Critics accused publisher Puffin of “absurd censorship”, “cultural vandalism”, and described the edits as a “botched surgery”. The alarm has come from all corners, with Rishi Sunak weighing in on the row, writing in a statement that “we shouldn’t gobblefunk around” with Dahl’s words.
For some, this is another example of the woke PC mob coming in with their sensitivity readers and censorious attitudes, determined to hack away at everything they hold dear. For others it’s about keeping the integrity of these books intact, even if their content is, for many, no longer acceptable. In any case, it’s clear that the story of Roald Dahl and The Big Bad Publisher is far more complicated than what has been initially portrayed.
In today’s newsletter, books journalist Sarah Shaffi and children’s book critic for the Guardian, Imogen Russell Williams, explain why there has been this outsized reaction to the Dahl edits – and what it says about the publishing industry. That’s after the headlines.
Five big stories
Turkey | A 6.4-magnitude earthquake and a second measuring 5.8 hit Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, just two weeks since the region was devastated by twin earthquakes. Turkey’s interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, said that at least three people were killed and 213 wounded by the latest quakes, with a further 500 injured in northwest Syria.
Crime | The families of four victims of the Plymouth shooting have accused the police of giving the gunman, Jake Davison, a “licence to kill” because they allowed him to have a shotgun even though they were aware of his violent history.
Scotland | Humza Yousaf, the Scottish health secretary, has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister. Yousaf has pledged to uphold Sturgeon’s progressive agenda, saying he “absolutely” would challenge the UK government’s block on Holyrood’s gender recognition bill.
US news | Joe Biden’s unprecedented visit to Kyiv, during which he announced a new package of additional weapons supplies worth $500m, was meticulously planned over several months by a tight circle of key advisers. The White House notified Russia of Biden’s plans hours before his departure, to avoid any misunderstanding between the two nuclear-armed powers.
Work | Nearly all of the companies that took part in the world’s largest trial of the four-day week have decided to continue with the new structure of the working week. The findings of the trial will be presented to politicians today as part of a push to to give all British workers a 32-hour week.
In depth: ‘The point isn’t to Ctrl+F words and replace them with something else’
Criticisms of Roald Dahl’s bigotry are not new – in 1990 the New York Times published a letter in response to Dahl’s obituary that said that his work must not obscure the fact that he was a “blatant and admitted antisemite”. The racism, misogyny and fatphobia in Dahl’s work is well documented, so why are Puffin changing it now?
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Edits like these are not uncommon
The first thing to note is that this is not the first time that an older book is being republished with some of its language changed. In 2010, Hatchett announced that it would be making “sensitive text revisions” to Enid Blyton’s 21 Famous Five books. In Roald Dahl’s own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa Loompas were originally “pygmies” imported by Willy Wonka from “the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle”, before they were changed to small orange people.
These kinds of changes come as part of a relatively innocuous editorial process: “[The editors] will look at the language again and they’ll do a very light edit on it from all points of view, looking at the manuscript for any holes or spelling mistakes that weren’t caught at the time, and this is just a part of that,” Sarah Shaffi says.
The reason that this story has gained the traction and outrage that it has is because of the cultural magnitude of Dahl, says Imogen Russell Williams. “For those who don’t necessarily have the time to read more widely and find the more contemporary stuff that’s been published, they often will default back [to Dahl], and lots of parents will default back to him too, having enjoyed him in their childhoods,” she says. This collective attachment to Dahl’s writing may well, in turn, have had a “distorting” effect on the response that people have had to the news about the tweaks.
Sensitivity readers are a normal and necessary part of editing – they often act as an additional editor, giving notes and factchecking on characters from marginalised groups, particularly if an author is writing about something that is outside their experience. Some authors say that this sanitises their work, but most appreciate and welcome the input. Regardless, they are now a common part of the publishing world.
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‘Small, carefully considered’ changes
Working alongside Puffin and Inclusive Minds, an organisation specialising in authentic representation in children’s books, the Roald Dahl Story Company have said that they have been reviewing the books for republication since 2020 and any edits are “small and carefully considered”, to make sure that the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”. The changes are, undeniably, quite extensive, with hundreds of rewrites or cuts made in relation to race, gender, weight, mental health and violence. Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer “fat”, but is described as “enormous”, and Matilda reads Jane Austen rather than Rudyard Kipling. Some of the alterations could be viewed as unnecessary or pointless, but it might be a reductive way of viewing these changes.
“The point isn’t to Ctrl+F, find the use of the word and delete or replace it with something else,” Shaffi explains, “It’s about looking at the real life context, and the context within the book. If a character’s whole villainy is predicated on the fact that they have a scar or that they are overweight then I think it’s actually a case where you need to wonder what that says about us as a society, and the writer’s work.”
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An industrial reckoning?
The criticism levelled at Puffin is not all unfounded culture-war panic. Cutting and rewriting the text of a heritage book is not an easy or straightforward task, and – if done wrong – could be viewed as an act of erasure. “Each generation will find new things problematic or potentially offensive, and you do run the risk of losing things in a way that doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense,” says Russell Williams. Instead of changing what’s in the book, Russell Williams suggests that publishers should provide an introduction and framing material to prompt parents, teachers and children to be aware of what they’re reading.
This corrective response from the industry has, in part, been in reaction to existing exclusionary structures that have meant that both the number of authors of colour and protagonists in stories that are from marginalised communities have always been negligible. Publishing may look progressive from the outside in, but in reality it moves at a glacial place. These rewrites are just the latest move from an industry reckoning with its past – and trying to figure out its future.
What else we’ve been reading
The scale of the devastation in the wake of the earthquake that shook Syria and Turkey is unfathomable: the World Health Organization has said that 26 million people are in need of help across the two countries. Oliver Holmes, Elena Morresi and Finbarr Sheehy give a comprehensive rundown of the aftermath. Nimo
Why are the Baftas getting more white, asks Leila Latif, in a smart opinion piece that nails the crucial point that diversity is about “more than statistics”. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters
Opera is not everyone’s cup of tea, but that is no reason to stand by as it is systematically defunded. “If you starve something, run it down constantly, gradually reduce the provision of it so that few can afford it, it becomes ‘elitist’,” writes Charlotte Higgins. Nimo
Andrea Harris Smith writes evocatively about the persisting racial disparities in American schools, and her own fascinating family connection to the topic. Hannah
Celebrate pancake day the right way today with these seven recipes by Yvonne C Lam. Nimo
Sport
Football | Former Watford boss Javi Gracia is the frontrunner to fill the vacancy at Leeds, as the club’s defeat at Everton leaves them in the Premier League’s relegation zone.
Athletics | Suspended British sprinter CJ Ujah will not be granted public funding until he repays UK Sport more than £10,000. Ujah was banned last October from competing for 22 months after he tested positive for banned substances at the Tokyo Olympics.
Football | Liverpool’s principal owner, has confirmed it is not looking to sell the club. Moves to open up to outside investment in recent years have fuelled speculation that Fenway Sports Group is seeking to sell a majority stake.
The front pages
The Guardian leads with the outcome of an inquest jury which found, “‘Catastrophic failures’ led to Plymouth shootings”. The Financial Times reports “Biden vows ‘unwavering support’ for Ukraine on surprise visit to Kyiv”. The Telegraph covers an intervention from two former prime ministers with “Send jets to Ukraine, Truss and Johnson tell PM”.
The i says, “Nicola Bulley’s family accuse ‘shameful’ TV crews and social media” after police confirmed her body had been found yesterday. The Mail pays tribute with: “Nikki… we can let you rest now”. The Sun has a similar line: “You can rest now, Nikki”. The Mirror quotes her family as saying, “She was the centre of our world”.
Finally the Times has the latest on the Northern Ireland protocol: “Brexit deal may trigger resignations, Sunak told”.
Today in Focus
The new tactics of Britain’s far right
Far-right groups are mobilising in towns around the UK where asylum seekers are living in hotels. The protests are spreading – and turning increasingly aggressive
Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Bishop Auckland’s high street was suffering even before the pandemic, but today a virtual reality arcade is encouraging people back to the area. The Gaming Hideaway has machines that are more like theme-park rides than traditional arcades, flipping players completely upside down as they ride VR rollercoasters or shoot alien spaceships.
Husband and wife Kaiyn and Rachel Crooks opened the venue in 2022 – their second, after successfully launching in Thornaby, near Stockton, a year earlier (they’re looking for investment to help open a third venue in 2024). Its success points to one possible future for struggling high streets in the north-east – reimagining them not as retail spaces but as entertainment destinations.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
