Puffin Books have worked with the consultancy Inclusive Minds (who say they help publishers, authors and illustrators work towards authentic inclusion, accessibility, and diverse representation) to revise some of the language used in Roald Dahl’s books for children, more than 100 years after his birth.
The story has attracted mass attention. UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and author Salman Rushdie have both expressed their disagreement with this approach to Dahl’s work. However, it is not unusual for books for children to undergo revisions for new generations.
Physician Thomas Bowdler rewrote Shakespeare’s plays for a family audience in the early 1800s, removing content he deemed inappropriate from the Bard’s previously published works. Charles Dickens wrote a furious essay in 1853 called Frauds on the Fairies criticising his former friend and illustrator George Cruikshank’s retelling of several fairy tales, which incorporated an anti-alcohol message.
