Rewriting Roald Dahl: ‘absurd censorship’ or a sign of the times?
References to weight, mental health, gender and race have been changed having been deemed offensive to modern readers
![Roald Dahl](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/MasRBpBdAFBhXMKaQbwjP9-415-80.jpg)
A series of revisions to Roald Dahl’s books to make them more palatable for today’s readers has become the latest skirmish in the culture wars.
The alterations to the stories were made by the late author’s publisher Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company, now owned by Netflix, with sensitivity readers hired to scrutinise the text. Content deemed offensive, “such as references to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race were removed or rewritten”, said Sky News.
“Augustus Gloop is no longer fat, Mrs Twit is no longer fearfully ugly, and the Oompa-Loompas have gone gender-neutral,” said The Telegraph, who first broke news of the changes.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In an apparent reference to the author’s anti-Semitism, Salman Rushdie decried the revisions, saying on Twitter: “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.’’
‘Small and carefully considered’
The changes to Dahl’s books come as campaigners “seek to protect young people from cultural, ethnic and gender stereotypes in literature and other media”, said The Guardian.
The Roald Dahl Story Company, which controls the rights to the books, said it worked with Puffin to review the texts because it wanted to ensure that “Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today”. The language was reviewed in partnership with Inclusive Minds, a “collective working to make children’s literature more inclusive and accessible”, said The Guardian. Any changes were “small and carefully considered”, the company said.
“When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details, including a book’s cover and page layout,’’ the company said. “Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text.”
‘Cultural purging’
“This is a cultural purging,” said Brendan O’Neill in The Spectator. “They can doll it up in the language of ‘sensitivity’ and ‘inclusion’ as much as they like, but to the rest of us it still smacks of a Stalinist correction of wrongspeak,” he added.
Suzanne Nossel, CEO of PEN America, a community of more than 7,000 writers advocating for freedom of expression, tweeted: “Those who might cheer specific edits to Dahl’s work should consider how the power to rewrite books might be used in the hands of those who do not share their values and sensibilities.”
Matthew Dennison, Dahl’s biographer, told The Telegraph that the author, who was born in 1916 and died in 1990 aged 74, chose his vocabulary with care. Dahl would have “recognised that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children”, said Dennison.
In many ways Dahl’s stories “aren’t brilliant in spite of the darkness; they are brilliant because of it”, said The Times’s deputy literary editor Laura Hackett. It’s true that Dahl “was a very nasty man – a racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic bully”, she adds, and that editors “rightly made him remove offensive content” at the time but “if we are to stop reading children’s books by authors who are nasty people… we’ll be left with very few books at all”.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jamie Timson is the UK news editor, curating The Week UK's daily morning newsletter and setting the agenda for the day's news output. He was first a member of the team from 2015 to 2019, progressing from intern to senior staff writer, and then rejoined in September 2022. As a founding panellist on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast, he has discussed politics, foreign affairs and conspiracy theories, sometimes separately, sometimes all at once. In between working at The Week, Jamie was a senior press officer at the Department for Transport, with a penchant for crisis communications, working on Brexit, the response to Covid-19 and HS2, among others.
-
Red Speedo: a 'darkly comic' doping drama
The Week Recommends Lucas Hnath's play stars Finn Cole as a 'reptilian' swimmer determined to win at all costs
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
One Aldwych: where London's creative spirit takes centre stage
The Week Recommends This five-star Covent Garden hotel is the epitome of elegant independence
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Charlotte Dujardin and equestrianism's dark side
In the Spotlight Olympic gold medallist and dressage star's suspension over horse whipping brings abuse in horse sports back into the spotlight
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
In 'Twisters,' there are no winds of (climate) change
Talking Point The weather-focused blockbuster kicks up a swirl of controversy over a conspicuous and deliberate omission
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Are dating apps dying?
Talking Point Younger people are ditching dating apps in favour of seeking real-world encounters
By Keumars Afifi-Sabet, The Week UK Published
-
Why Katy Perry's on trial at the 'pop culture Hague'
Talking Point Her new single, an 'attempt' at a 'feminist anthem', has been ferociously slated for retreading dated ground
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Can Gladiator II outdo its epic original?
Talking Point Trailer for the long-awaited sequel shows Paul Mescal fighting a rhino, and taps into 'nostalgia' for 'sword and sandals drama'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
How did Glastonbury 2024 measure up?
Talking Point Sound problems hampered 'sublime' performances during festival in which pop came out on top
By Julia O'Driscoll, The Week UK Published
-
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition: 'wonderfully diverse' art
Talking Point This annual show sticks to 'a familiar template' in the hopes of enticing both new and returning visitors
By The Week UK Published
-
The House of Beckham: why Tom Bower's book won't topple the Golden Balls empire
Talking Point Unauthorised biography of David and Victoria Beckham is met with tepid response
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published
-
Has Bridgerton lost the plot?
Talking Point Return of the hit Regency series has divided both fans and critics
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published