Colfer cries Fowl on UK school over books ban
BEST selling Wexford author Eoin Colfer said he laughed when he heard that the headmaster of a prominent fee-paying school in the UK had banned his books from its library.
Headmaster Andrew Halls of King’s College School in Wimbledon, South West London said authors such as Colfer and Derek Landy and others including Rick Riordan and Anthony Horowitz were ‘not good enough’ for educational purposes.
He described them as ‘so simplistic, brutal and banal’ that children should not be exposed to them on school grounds and he withdrew them from the school library.
Instead the headmaster compiled his own personalised list of 300 ‘classics’ that will be available for boys in the school to read in each classroom.
‘It’s one of those things that happens occasionally. I don’t take it too seriously,’ said Eoin who was a primary school teacher before becoming a full-time writer of children’s fantasy, science fiction and adventure novels.
The Wexfordman gained worldwide recognition in 2001 when the first of his series of Artemis Fowl books was published and became a New York Times Best Seller. More than half his books have reached the New York Times list. He also wrote the sixth instalment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy entitled ‘And Another Thing...’
‘It’s funny. It seems to have been done for a bit of a publicity stunt and it worked,’ said Eoin who is a former Laureate na nÓg, adding:’ I feel that the same guy would have banned Treasure Island and the Beatles.’
It’s not the first time that his books have been censored. ‘I’ve been banned before in various schools. I was banned in a school in California, one of those very liberal schools. I had been booked for a reading. The librarian hadn’t read the book before issuing the invitation and when she realised there was magic in it, she cancelled.’
However Eoin said it does bother him that the headmaster is effectively saying ‘ these books are bad’.
‘ That annoys me. For him to say that the books of Derek Landy are not good. He is an award-winning writer. And Anthony Horowitz is an OBE.’
‘It seems quite calculated. All the authors he singled out are quite high-profile writers who are successful and would get a headline. There are plenty of fantasy books that are not well-known. Half of the authors banned by the school are Irish.’
After hearing about the ban, Eoin wrote a tweet saying he was speaking to Holly Johnson (the lead singer of Frankie Goes to Hollywood who achieved huge commercial success after their hit song Relax was banned by the BBC and Top of the Pops) and he thought it would really hurt his career.
Eoin reckons the author Darren Shan was probably banned by the school too, although he is not in the publicised list.
‘Ironically, Darren Shan, Anthony Horowitz and I were invited to a reception in 10 Downing Street five years ago in recognition of our contribution to children’s literature.’
He said the school decision would only have the effect of encouraging the students to go and read the books.
Colfer’s books are regularly chosen as the class novel in many schools in the UK and are on the official curriculum in schools in Ireland.
Lorraine Levis, a children’s buyer with Dubray Books wrote an article in the Irish Times taking issue with the headmaster.
‘ There are a huge number of children whose only chance to pick a book for themselves is from the school library and so this is a dangerous belief to put out into the world,’ she wrote. ‘Maybe Halls needs to find empathy himself and realise that not every moment of a child’s life needs to be an academic lesson and that the gift of reading does not, and will never need to be censored.’
Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider spy series, criticised the decision saying the headmaster ‘should have more confidence in the ability of children to find the books they enjoy and which inspire them- and perhaps rather less in his ability to dictate their tastes’.