Rishi Sunak joins criticism of changes to Roald Dahl books

Rishi Sunak has joined the debate around Roald Dahl’s books which have seen the removal of some references and words.

Some of Dahl’s works, which include the likes of The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have recently been edited to suit modern audiences. The Prime Minister criticised the move saying we shouldn’t ‘gobblefunk’ around with words, portraying it as an attack on freedom of speech.

Borrowing a word used by the children’s author in his book The BFG, Mr Sunak’s spokesperson said: “When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the prime minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn’t gobblefunk around with words.”

Others also spoke out against the changes including author Salman Rushdie, with the Satanic Verses and Midnight’s Children writer tweeting: “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”

Rushdie was recently injured in an attack in New York while he was preparing to deliver a lecture. The 75-year-old author, who received death threats from Iran in the 1980s after his novel The Satanic Verses was published, was stabbed in the neck and torso as he walked onto the stage to give a talk on artistic freedom at the Chautauqua Institution on August 12th 2022.

However, some authors have approved of the changes to Dahl’s writings, and voiced their opinions on the divisive matter.

His Dark Materials author Phillip Pullman has suggested the author’s books should be allowed to ‘fade away’: “If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,” said Pullman. “Read all these [other] wonderful authors who are writing today, who don’t get as much of a look-in because of the massive commercial gravity of people like Roald Dahl.”

Poet and author Debjani Chatterjee told the BBC she believes it is ‘a very good thing that the publishers are reviewing his work’, saying: “I think it’s been done quite sensitively. Take the word ‘fat’. They’ve used ‘enormous’. If anything, I actually think ‘enormous’ is even funnier.”

Hundreds of changes have been made to Dahl’s original texts. For example in The Twits, Mrs Twit is no longer ‘ugly and beastly’ but just ‘beastly. References to people being fat are also among the edits, which were made in conjunction with Inclusive Minds, a ‘collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature’.