Prize winning author to rewrite ‘racist’ memoir about pupils

AN ORWELL prize-winning author is to rewrite her memoir after criticism that her portrayal of children was “racist”.

Kate Clanchy, a Scottish writer who taught in schools for more than 30 years, has been accused of offensive

descriptions in her 2019 book, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.

The book, which last year won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing, was accused by Twitter and Goodreads users of racial stereotyping because of a reference to the “chocolate-coloured skin” of a black child, who was described as “African Jonathan”.

Separate criticisms focused on Ms Clanchy, 56, having used the term “almond-shaped eyes” and writing that two autistic pupils were “jarring company”. She claimed last week that the passages in question had been taken out of context and it led the author Philip Pullman to defend the book as “humane, decent and generous”.

But on Monday Ms Clanchy said in an updated statement that she was “grateful” for the chance to “do some rewriting on Some Kids”.

“I know I got many things wrong, and welcome the chance to write better, more lovingly,” she said. “I am not a good person, I do try to say that in my book. Not a pure person, not a patient person, no one’s saviour. You are right to blame me, and I blame myself.”

Picador, Ms Clanchy’s publisher, said that it was “profoundly sorry” for any offence that Some Kids had caused.

In 2018 Ms Clanchy was appointed MBE for services to literature.