Roald Dahl

Famous works including “The Twits” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” have been adjusted.

Twit is simply “beastly” instead of “ugly and beastly,” as Dahl wrote in 1980. This is not the first time Dahl has been embroiled in controversy after his passing. “Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations,” the company wrote on its website. Fox, to make them more inclusive, but some authors and critics have labeled the edits a form of censorship—here’s what to know about the revisions. [tweeted](https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie/status/1627075835525210113?s=20) Dahl “was no angel but this is absurd censorship,” and said his estate should be “ashamed,” [calling](https://twitter.com/SalmanRushdie/status/1627375615165755392?s=20) those who edited Dahl’s writing “the bowdlerizing Sensitivity Police.” [reported](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/17/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-offensive-matilda-witches-twits/) that “hundreds” of words in Dahl’s books had been changed; the character Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as “enormous,” instead of “enormously fat,” as he was in the original 1964 version, and in The Twits, Mrs.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: “When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the Prime Minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn't ...

“We have always defended the right to free speech and expression.” The official added: “I think it’s important that works of literature and works of fiction are preserved and not airbrushed. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman 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.”

The industry is simply updating classics to appeal to millennial parents. The main problem seems to be the quality of the prose, says Guardian columnist ...

[human pygmies bought for cocoa beans](https://theconversation.com/from-pygmies-to-puppets-what-to-do-with-roald-dahls-enslaved-oompa-loompas-in-modern-adaptations-166967) in the African jungle – could be recast as the little orange creatures with which we’re all now familiar. The [current West End production](https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/mar/31/to-kill-a-mockingbird-review-aaron-sorkin-rafe-spall-gielgud-theatre) of Harper Lee’s 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird is, if anything, richer for the addition of a scene in which the idealistic white lawyer Atticus Finch is taken to task by his Black maid Calpurnia, after failing, despite his best efforts, to save a Black man from the electric chair. (The f-word is one of many familiar playground taunts now frowned on in primary schools to discourage bullying; I still remember my then six-year-old breathlessly reporting that someone was in big trouble for using the “i-word”, which turned out to be “idiot”). Unfortunately, not every sensitivity reader is a Sorkin, and whoever rewrote the Centipede was no Dahl. [absurd censorship](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-rewrites-criticism-language-altered)” of Dahl, rightly focuses on the broader principle that editing cannot become suppression. [update the books](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/18/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-to-remove-language-deemed-offensive) with the help of a sensitivity reader has caused such uproar; why it leaves many nostalgic adults feeling not just deprived, but morally judged for loving them in the first place. [for a cool £500m](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/sep/22/netflix-acquires-works-of-roald-dahl-as-it-escalates-streaming-wars-matilda-bfg) in 2021 – would move to protect its investment? As with plastic surgery, the ideal sensitivity edit is one readers barely notice, but which just makes everything feel fresher. The thrilling nastiness that children love about Dahl isn’t completely expunged, but the range of things he can be nasty about is narrowing. Given his own famously [antisemitic views](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/06/roald-dahl-family-apologises-for-his-antisemitism), Dahl has always, perhaps, been a high cancellation risk, and the books themselves were starting to show their age compared with modern children’s titles. That “fat” can’t now be employed as a lazy synonym for hateful, or that schools now are infinitely kinder and gentler places than Dahl’s sadistic-sounding prep, is wholeheartedly a good thing. Handing down beloved books to your children is one of the best things about being a parent.

LONDON — Publishers introducing contentious changes to works by the classic children's author Roald Dahl are Twits, the British prime minister has indicated ...

Author Salman Rushdie said the edits were “absurd censorship,” while the actor Brian Cox claimed they were an example of “woke” culture. “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 in a statement. The changes were initially reported

(JNS) One of history's great literary revisionism discussions ensues when Moses and God converse after the Golden Calf fiasco. If God does not forgive the ...

“One of the great gifts literature of the past offers us is the humble reminder that every age and every artist falls prey to blind spots,” said Swallow Prior. “I was emphatic in my communications with the school that I think Dahl’s books should absolutely be read, and the teachers should keep assigning them,” Weingrad told JNS. “The last thing we should be doing in 21st-century America is censoring books based on categories of judgment that were often invented a few years ago,” he added. He figured the principal and teachers were unaware that Roald Dahl Day was celebrating such a “personally vile” writer who was an “open antisemite and general creep.” They were embarrassed when he alerted them, and they stopped celebrating the day. “It’s a part of him, and it’s a part of reading his work, like his awful depictions of race,” she said. Either the work of art passes the test of time, or it does not,” she said. Classical literary works are abridged and translated all the time, “even the Bible,” she told JNS. [Dahl’s books](https://www.jns.org/opinion/no-one-needs-posthumous-apologies-from-an-anti-semitic-writer/), such as “James and the Giant Peach” (1961), “ [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory](https://stljewishlight.org/news/world-news/timothee-chalamet-set-to-play-anti-semite-roald-dahls-most-famous-character/)” (1964), “The BFG” (1982), “The Witches” (1983) and “Matilda” (1988). “We don’t read books to nod and turn the page. “It’s enough to make you wish the people behind this decision suffer the fates of Veruca Salt or Augustus Gloop.” (In Dahl’s book, the former goes down a garbage chute, and the latter is squeezed through a pipe.) It often ages poorly, and healthy cultures are able to grapple with that without sweeping it under the rug, which makes it hard for us to appreciate our progress, because we lose points of reference,” she said. The quality of the writing suffers as a result—and in at least one case, the very moral of the novel changes, too,” said Scalia.

The news that changes have been made to the works of best-selling children's author Roald Dahl has been met with anger from leading writers, ...

While he did not express support for the changes, he told BBC Radio 4's "Today" show on Monday that Dahl's books should be left to "fade away." Following the release of his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses," the then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the his death. 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. In a lengthy report published on Saturday, British newspaper The Daily Telegraph revealed that it had found hundreds of changes across the author's many children's books. It has now emerged that current editions of his books, published by Puffin, feature the following wording at the bottom of the copyright page: "Words matter. Fox, Willy Wonka and the Twits.

Books by Roald Dahl are being edited to remove words that could be deemed offensive. Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the ...

The Ronald Dahl Story Company Rushdie was stabbed in August and [lost vision in one eye and has nerve damage](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/07/1155111717/salman-rushdie-victory-city). [that have been translated into 68 languages](https://www.roalddahl.com/about/). The company said it worked with Inclusive Minds, an organization that works for inclusivity in children's books. Instead he is described as "enormous," The Telegraph reports. In his 1983 book The Witches, he writes that witches are bald beneath their wigs.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: “When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the Prime Minister agrees with the BFG that we shouldn't ...

“We have always defended the right to free speech and expression.” The official added: “I think it’s important that works of literature and works of fiction are preserved and not airbrushed. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman 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.”

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak author Salman Rushdie and more have joined in the criticism of changes to books by Roald Dahl for language deemed offensive.

[Salman Rushdie](https://deadline.com/tag/salman-rushdie/). “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.” [told](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64702224) local media, “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. [PEN America](https://deadline.com/tag/pen-america/) CEO Suzanne Nossel joined the chorus saying “we are alarmed at news of ‘hundreds of changes’ to venerated works by Roald Dahl.” We have always defended the right to free speech and expression.” Titles like James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been altered by modifying words that are now deemed offensive.

Publishers Puffin have made hundreds of changes to characters and language in Dahl's stories for children, including making the diminutive Oompa-Loompas in ...

“This rewrite only concerns Britain,” a spokesperson for the French publishers Gallimard said. In France, the translator and commentator Bérengère Viennot wrote on the Slate.fr website that “a rewritten Roald Dahl novel is no longer a Roald Dahl novel”. [Rishi Sunak](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-editing-philip-pullman), all weighing in on the debate.

Confidence strategist Lizi Jackson-Barrett has spoken out about the changes to Roald Dahl's books, saying they are unnecessary and in some cases the new ...

"Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company have really missed a trick here. Being exposed to ideas we find challenging helps us to become resilient, critical thinkers, and more able to debate and educate." "I believe there's a balance to be struck. The edits have come from a review process, which has been ongoing since 2020, according to The Roald Dahl Story Company. "But this doesn't mean we should be sheltered from everything we could potentially find offensive. I grew up reading and loving Roald Dahl's books and I'm angry that they've been tampered with in my name. I now work as a coach and speaker, helping others to become confident too. Lizi said: "I developed alopecia in 2017 when I turned 40. "I recognise that the changes were made with the best of intentions, and I agree that some of the original writing does feel uncomfortable. "As a fat, bald woman, I feel that I tick a number of boxes for the people that Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company were trying to protect. One of the changes in The Witches addresses the characters being bald, with the added line: "There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that" In the past, she's had to explain to children how she's not a witch but despite this, she's not offended by the original description of the witches by Roald Dahl and says they shouldn't have been changed.

Kids are expected to shrug off a daily barrage of sexual and violent imagery – but are seen as too sensitive to cope with an uncensored Dahl story.

The decision to edit Roald Dahl’s books highlights a central hypocrisy in our culture. Usually, I manage less than a minute before the airwaves fill the room with stories of genocide, rape or murder and I’m forced to turn it off. Every morning, I turn on the radio in the vain hope that I might be able to listen to it for more than a few minutes before my five-year-old son walks into the room.