Roald Dahl

New editions of the best-selling author's children's classics, including “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” have been altered to eliminate words deemed ...

While noting that it did not “write, edit or rewrite texts,” the group said that it had helped “provide valuable input when it comes to reviewing language that can be damaging and perpetuate harmful stereotypes.” “Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the story lines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text.” A review of the author’s works began in 2020, before [Netflix acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-acquires-iconic-roald-dahl-story-company), which manages the author’s copyrights and trademarks, Rick Behari, a company spokesman, said in a statement on Monday. “I never get any protests from children,” Mr. “What are you going to do about them? But they remain widely read and are regularly reimagined for the silver screen. “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,” Mr. “All you get are giggles of mirth and squirms of delight. The books’ publisher, Puffin Books, and the author’s estate did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the changes. Behari said that the estate had partnered with Inclusive Minds, an organization that champions diversity and accessibility in children’s literature. In a statement on Monday, the group declined to discuss the Dahl project specifically. The changes have prompted widespread criticism from prominent literary figures and others, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain.

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.

Author Roald Dahl autographing books in Dun Laoghaire shopping centre, Oct. 22, 1988. Independent News and Media—Getty Images. By Armani Syed.

These edits include the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach becoming Cloud-People, while in The Witches, the use of “old hags” has been replaced with “old crows.” “You start out wanting to replace a word here and a word there, and end up inserting entirely new ideas.” Instead, she suggests, publishers should include introductions to works with offensive language to prepare readers with context. [who died](https://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/24/obituaries/roald-dahl-writer-74-is-dead-best-sellers-enchanted-children.html) at age 74, had a history of making anti-Semitic comments and including [racist](http://bbc.com/culture/article/20160912-the-dark-side-of-roald-dahl) tropes and language in his works. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.’’ In Matilda, a mention of the English novelist Rudyard Kipling has also been replaced with Jane Austen. In The Witches, Dahl had written, “You can’t go round pulling the hair of every lady you meet, even if she is wearing gloves. The idea was rejected on the grounds that he was “associated with anti-Semitism and not regarded as an author of the highest reputation.” “We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words.” “He may have been a great children’s writer but he was also a racist and this should be remembered,” she said. But in the years since Dahl’s death in 1990, some have turned their focus to a number of harmful tropes used by the late British author, including a history of Puffin Books, a children’s imprint of Penguin Books, worked with the Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC), which is now exclusively owned by Netflix, to review the texts. The organization told TIME they “do not write, edit, or rewrite texts, but provide book creators with valuable insight from people with the relevant lived experience that they can take into consideration in the wider process of writing and editing.”

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.

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

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.

Children's books implicitly shape the minds of young readers - and are covertly censored in many ways. But revising occasional words will usually not shift ...

Most notably, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) was partially rewritten by Dahl in 1973 after [pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People](https://daily.jstor.org/roald-dahls-anti-black-racism/) and children’s literature professionals. Librarians and teachers may select, or refuse to select, books because of the potential for complaint, or because of their own political beliefs. It also enables discussion of topics such as racism and sexism with parents and educators, more easily achieved if the original language remains intact. This option works as a covert form of censorship, given the power adults hold over what books children can access. [The Family Shakespeare](https://archive.org/details/familyshakespear00shakuoft) was published in 1807 and contained 20 of the author’s plays. Third, we can allow children to read any version of a book, original or bowdlerised. Children’s literature implicitly shapes the minds of child readers by presenting particular social and cultural values as normal and natural. [Was the Cat in the Hat Black? In Matilda, the protagonist no longer reads the works of Rudyard Kipling but Jane Austen. For instance, Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer “fat” but “enormous”. which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family”, specifically in front of women and children. Mrs Twit, from The Twits, has become “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly”.

Peter Hitchens has slammed the "censorship" of Roald Dahl's books, calling it a "crime against truth".

The formidable Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, previously described as having a “great horsey face,” now just has a “face”. "We now live under a marshmallow totalitarianism - there are things you can no longer say. A body found in a river has been identified as missing mother-of-two Nicola Bulley, police have... Prince Harry's legal fight for police protection when he visits the UK has reportedly cost... The witches in his 1983 novel of the same name are described as “old crows” instead of “old hags”. The word "fat" has been removed from every book, with the character Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory now described as “enormous”.

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.

For all the concern about cancel culture and wokewashing, critics, writers, publishers and film producers have always been mindful of changing ...

In the case of The Witches this amounted to even adding a line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.” Well, yes – and children are probably bright enough to work that out for themselves. The story they like best of all is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Mrs Cameron will stop them reading it only over my dead body”. “Fat” is not the only word that has been removed; so too have references to “crazy” and “mad”, words to which Dahl was partial, though never in a way that seemed to poke fun at mental-health issues. The books are offensive; that is the whole point. It is when those views and the work coincide that there is a conundrum. They know it’s wrong and disgusting and repulsive – the fact that they know this is part of its appeal. These are books about young orphans who are packed off to live with abusive, sadistic aunts and who subsequently escape on a giant piece of fruit. [apologised](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/roald-dahl-s-family-apologises-for-author-s-anti-semitism-1.4428979) for his anti-Semitism, saying they recognised the “lasting and understandable hurt” it caused. What this reflects is that, for all the contemporary moral panic about so-called wokewashing, critics, writers, publishers and film producers have always been mindful of sensitivities in a changing culture. In my 1983 edition of Roald Dahl’s The Witches, readers are warned that witches “dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. Cameron was also exercised about the fate of the grandparents, who were forced to move to the factory against their will. Even as a lifelong fan of his children’s novels who finds it hard to suppress an instinctive shudder at the idea of them being edited, these criticisms strike me as somewhat hyperbolic.

The French publishers of Roald Dahl have ruled out any changes to the late British author's translated books after reports that English editions were being ...

In France, translator and commentator Berengere Viennot told the Slate.fr website that "a rewritten Roald Dahl novel is no longer a Roald Dahl novel". Gallimard first published "James et La Grosse Peche" (James and the Giant Peach) in 1966, and "Charlie et la Chocolaterie" in 1967. Twit in "The Twits" is also no longer ugly, but beastly instead, while the Cloud-Men in "James and the Giant Peach" are now "Cloud-People".

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.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined in the criticism of the changes made to Roald Dahl books, including the removal of the word "fat"

“If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,” he said. In the same book, the words “weird African language” have also been removed. “Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed”. In the BFG, the giant’s coat is no longer black. In Matilda, the threat to “knock her flat” have been changed to “give her a right talking to”. The BFG is now standing “still as a statue”, as opposed to “white as a sheet” in the original text.