HOGWARS! Staff mutiny at JK Rowling publishers over transgender row
They threaten to down tools in row over her gender views
PUBLISHING staff working on JK Rowling’s latest book threatened to down tools yesterday in protest at her views on gender.
The Harry Potter author, 54, has endured a storm of protest since expressing ‘deep concerns’ about transgender activism in an essay last week in which she also described being a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault.
Those criticising her have included movie stars she helped make famous.
It led to headlines such as ‘Bonfire of JK Rowling’ as the multi-millionpound empire she created threatened to turn against her.
Yesterday morning at publishing house Hachette, several of those involved in Miss Rowling’s new children’s book, The Ickabog, are said to have staged their own rebellion during
‘They are all very “woke” there’
a heated meeting. One source said: ‘Staff in the children’s department at Hachette announced they were no longer prepared to work on the book.
‘They said they were opposed to her comments and wanted to show support for the trans lobby. These staff are all very “woke”, mainly in their twenties and early thirties, and apparently it is an issue they feel very strongly about.’
Another insider said: ‘It was a handful of staff, and they are entitled to their views. If they were being asked to edit a book on domestic abuse, and they were a survivor of domestic abuse, of course they would never be forced to work on it. But this is a children’s fairy tale. It is not the end of the world. They will all be having chats with their managers.’
Last night Hachette issued a statement backing Miss Rowling’s right to express herself. It said: ‘We are proud to publish JK Rowling’s children’s fairy tale The Ickabog. Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of publishing. We fundamentally believe that everyone has the right to express their own thoughts and beliefs. That’s why we never comment on our authors’ personal views and we respect our employees’ right to hold a different view.
‘We will never make our employees work on a book whose content they find upsetting for personal reasons, but we draw a distinction between that and refusing to work on a book because they disagree with an author’s views outside their writing, which runs contrary to our belief in free speech.’
It is not the first time Hachette has faced a mutiny. Staff at the firm’s New York office staged a walkout in March in protest at its decision to publish Woody Allen’s autobiography. The 84year-old filmmaker has been accused by his daughter Dylan Farrow of molesting her in the early 1990s, claims he denies.
It has been a tumultuous few days for Miss Rowling since she posted a 3,600-word essay on her website about the pressures young people face to transition to another gender.
She even claimed she might have become a man – ‘to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred’ – if she had been subjected to similar pressures when she was a teenager.
She detailed why she has become embroiled in a bitter row on Twitter with campaigners who seek greater rights for men and women changing gender, referring to her experience of domestic abuse during her first marriage to Jorge Arantes.
Her essay drew widespread support but also stinging criticism from Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, who is worth £87million, Emma Watson, worth £52million and Rupert Grint, worth £40million. They issued statements in support of transgender people, pointedly not backing Miss Rowling.
Miss Rowling wrote The Ickabog more than a decade ago. She put the script in her attic but brought it out during the lockdown, posting daily instalments online. It will be published in November, with Miss Rowling, who is worth £795million, giving her royalties to help those affected by coronavirus.
Hachette UK boss David Shelley is an Oxford graduate lauded as one of the UK’s most influential gay executives. He is credited with making the publisher ‘more inclusive and diverse’.
A friend of Miss Rowling was quoted in the Sunday Times as saying: ‘She knows the commercial partners would rather she didn’t say anything, but her publishers recognise she has a right to speak her mind.’