The Latest Breaking News from Salman Rushdie

Friends and film-makers including Errol Morris, Laurie Anderson and Adam Curtis on the brilliance of Telluride’s Tom Luddy, who has died aged 79

Although several of his best-known children’s books were first published in the 1960s, Roald Dahl is among the most popular authors for young people today. The recent decision by publisher Puffin, in conjunction with The Roald Dahl Story Company, to make several hundred revisions to new editions of his novels…

Downing Street said works of art should be preserved and not ‘airbrushed’ for modern audiences.

PM opposes edits to children’s classics to remove material deemed offensive

Downing Street speaks out as debate rages over removal of colourful language from some of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books

SIR Salman Rushdie knows about upfront censorship: last year he was nearly killed by a man who said he disliked his views on Islam and he spent a decade in hiding after a fatwa from Iran.

Publisher Puffin hired sensitivity readers to rewrite passages to edit out words such as ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’

Augustus Gloop is no longer fat as Puffin Books confirmed it has rewritten the classics, removing references to issues such as weight and mental health

Content deemed offensive, such as references to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race, has been altered.

"Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship," Rushdie said.

Critics are accusing the British publisher of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s books of censorship after it removed colorful language from works such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda” to make them more acceptable to modern readers