The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has found his meeting with French premier Emmanuel Macron this weekend totally overshadowed in the British media. On Saturday evening, Sunak’s office released a statement from the PM, saying:
21.02.2023 - 13:47 / deadline.com
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined in the criticism of changes made to classic works by Roald Dahl which came to light over the weekend. Titles like James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been altered by modifying words that are now deemed offensive.
Publisher Puffin Books, an imprint of Penguin Books, said edits were made so the stories “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”
Sunak’s official spokesperson told local media, “When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the prime minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn’t gobblefunk around with words. I think it’s important that works of literature and works of fiction are preserved and not airbrushed. We have always defended the right to free speech and expression.”
Also speaking out against the changes is author Salman Rushdie. “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship,” he wrote on Twitter.
Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed. https://t.co/sdjMfBr7WW
PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel joined the chorus saying “we are alarmed at news of ‘hundreds of changes’ to venerated works by Roald Dahl.”
At @PENamerica we are alarmed at news of "hundreds of changes" to venerated works by @roald_dahl in a purported effort to scrub the books of that which might offend someone. 1/13 https://t.co/IXOkIaXYmt
She continued, “Selective editing to make works of literature conform to particular sensibilities could represent a dangerous new weapon.”
His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman, meanwhile, told BBC Radio 4 that Dahl’s books “should be allowed to fade away” rather than be changed. “If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,” he
The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has found his meeting with French premier Emmanuel Macron this weekend totally overshadowed in the British media. On Saturday evening, Sunak’s office released a statement from the PM, saying:
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remove language deemed offensive from the late British author’s children’s novels with the goal of making the stories suitable for modern readers generated widespread backlash last week.The company said that in addition to the revised editions, 17 of Dahl’s books will be published in their original form later this year as “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection,” The Associated Press reported, citing the company stating that “readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.”Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.The company’s Puffin children’s label altered passages in Dahl’s books relating to weight, mental health, gender and race to make the titles more palatable to today’s sensibilities. The move is not uncommon with older books, but the number of edits and books involved drew criticism.In addition to the changed description of the gluttonous Gloop in the 1964 novel later made into movies starring Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, The Roald Dahl Story Company, which controls the rights to the books, said it worked with Penguin’s Puffin children’s label to revise books like “Fantastic Mr.
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Naman Ramachandran Publisher Puffin U.K. will release “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection,” which will have the author’s original texts. “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection” will be available alongside the newly released Puffin Roald Dahl books for young readers, “which are designed for children who may be navigating written content independently for the first time,” Puffin said. “Readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.” Last week, Puffin was in the eye of a storm when it emerged that the works of Dahl, who died in 1990, had been rewritten, with the phrase “enormously fat” edited to just “enormous” and “most formidable female” to “most formidable woman” among numerous other examples from his most famous books. People who opposed the edits include author Salman Rushdie, who described it as “absurd censorship,” and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
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maligned by many, the notorious Roald Dahl word purge could prove a boon to one segment of society: the owners of the original books. “Unedited” versions of the classic children’s novels have reportedly been listed for as much as $7,000 on eBay.This comes after the news broke that Puffin Books — a Penguin Books imprint for children — had tapped so-called sensitivity experts to scrub language they deemed offensive in an effort to appease the “woke” masses.
The language used in the work of writer Roald Dahl has been changed to remove anything that my be deemed offensive. The publisher of Dahl’s work, Puffin books has removed words like “fat” to describe characters and gender neutral terms are also now being used.