Chocolat author survives vote to oust her from writers’ union

THE chairman of the UK’s largest trade union for writers last night survived a bid to force her out – despite being accused of trivialising a death threat against Harry Potter author JK Rowling.

Chocolat author Joanne Harris had been accused of being unfit to chair the Society of Authors and faced a vote at its online annual general meeting.

The vote was sparked by a resolution calling on Miss Harris to stand down which referred to ‘comments which are not compatible with the society’s goals of protecting free expression and their policy of dignity and respect’. There were 14 votes in favour and 608 against it.

Earlier this year Miss Harris was accused of downplaying death threats Miss Rowling received after supporting stabbed writer Sir Salman Rushdie. Miss Harris ran a poll asking writers if they’d received ‘credible’ death threats, branded a ‘sideswipe’ at Miss Rowling. Insisting her online poll ‘had nothing to do with JK Rowling’, Miss Harris later deleted and reposted it without the word ‘credible’.