Salman Rushdie has spoken out against recent reports that passages have been rewritten in some of Roald Dahl’s books
to remove language that may be considered offensive.
A report on Friday 17 February detailed some of the changes made to the author’s work after feedback from sensitivity readers.
One example of a change made to
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is that Augustus Gloop is now described as “enormous” rather than “fat”. Elsewhere, a character in
The Twits, Mrs Twit, is now just described as “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly”, according to
The Daily Telegraph.
Rushdie is one of several literary figures to express disapproval about the changes made to the children’s books. Reacting on
Twitter, the
Satanic Verses author wrote on Saturday (18 February): “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd
censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”
Comedian David Baddiel posted a screenshot of one of the changes to a passage in
The Twits. Though the version republished in 2001 reads: “You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth”, the new edit takes out the reference to a “double chin”.
