Fantastic Mr Dahl endures Continued on Page 3
ROALD DAHL’S books will be reissued in their uncensored form after a backlash forced the publisher into a retreat.
Puffin said it had listened to the “challenging and uncomfortable” debate in the days since The Daily Telegraph revealed that hundreds of changes had been made to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and more than a dozen other titles.
Words relating to weight, height, mental health, gender and skin colour were removed, and passages were added that were not written by Dahl.
The backlash included criticism from Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, and an
intervention by the Queen, who urged authors to write “unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression”.
Puffin announced yesterday that alongside the new, amended editions, it would publish the original versions of all 17 books as “The Roald Dahl Classic Collection”.
They will be published under the Penguin imprint, which is aimed at older readers.
“Readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer,” Puffin said.
The reversal was welcomed by Sir Salman Rushdie, who shared news of it on his Twitter account. He previously
described the changes as “absurd censorship”.
Suzanne Nossel, chief executive of the PEN America organisation, which champions freedom of expression for writers, said that Sir Salman had contacted her about Dahl when he first read the story. She said: “I got a note saying, ‘This is insane, right? Roald Dahl was a bigot and he never supported me, but really? We can’t say ‘fat’ or ‘female’? Can we take some sort of stand against this?”
In an internal memo, Tom Weldon, head of Penguin Random House, said
that The Telegraph’s story had provoked “lively conversation” about the updated books.
He added: “Like many authors, Dahl’s work has been edited through the years, including in his own lifetime. But when the stories mean so much to readers of all ages – as Dahl’s most definitely do – changes can be fiercely contested.”
Publishers are used to taking part in “cultural discourse and debate”, Mr Weldon said. “Sometimes that can be challenging and uncomfortable, and this has certainly been one of those times. These are always important moments to pause, to reflect on the discussion and to ask ourselves what we can learn.”
In a statement released three days ago, Puffin stood by the changes and insisted that they were “minimal”.
However, on Thursday, the Queen appeared to criticise the changes during a reception for authors at Clarence House. “Please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination. Enough said,” said the Queen, who is patron of the Booktrust charity.
Gyles Brandreth, a close friend of the Queen and a trustee of her new charity, the Queen’s Reading Room, said it was “wonderful” news that the old versions of the books would remain available.
“How sensible. Common sense prevails,” he said, joking: “One touch from the Queen is all it takes. One slight, tangential reference, not even an overt one, from the Queen and it’s all solved.”
The controversial changes to Dahl’s text were made by Puffin in conjunction with the Roald Dahl Story Company, which was bought by Netflix in 2021.
Both were taken aback by the response to their changes, which were made after Puffin hired sensitivity readers to comb through the text.
Augustus Gloop was no longer described as “fat”, Oompa-loompas became gender-neutral, and words including “female” and “crazy” were removed. A reference to black tractors was cut from Fantastic Mr Fox, and the Cloud-men in James and the Giant Peach were turned into Cloud-people.
As the backlash grew, publishers of Dahl in the US, Netherlands and France said they would not be following suit.
Puffin suggested that the new versions would be more appropriate for young children who are reading the books without parental supervision. Mr Weldon said the company is “especially sensitive to readers as young as five or six who may be navigating written content independently for the first time”.
The Classic Collection will feature “archive material relevant to each of the stories”, the publisher announced, although it refused to say what this will include, or whether the editions will retain Quentin Blake’s illustrations.
Francesca Dow, managing director of children’s publishing at Penguin Random House, said: “We’ve listened to the debate over the past week, which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.
“Dahl’s fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care of the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.”
The classic editions will go on sale later this year, and will allow Puffin to profit by having two editions on bookshelves at the same time.
Dahl died in 1990, aged 74. More than 250 million copies of his books have been sold around the world, and they have been translated into 68 languages.