Statement from SEEN in Publishing
When will Children's Publishing stand up to playground bullies?
We were horrified to learn The Little Literary Society, an independent online bookstore specialising in children’s books which sells through Bookstore.org, posted on Instagram last week, urging its followers to boycott the books by Onjali Raúf and JK Rowling. We were further horrified when Rachel Rooney was added to this boycott list for daring to remonstrate.
SEEN in Publishing views this behaviour as a blatant attempt at cancellation and a fundamental attack on freedom of expression. This sort of bullying behaviour is a form of blacklisting that seeks to punish authors for their legally held views and to act as a warning to other authors who dare hold contrary views. Such tactics have created a chill in publishing and are stifling creativity. It is time for the industry to stand together and show that such tactics will no longer be tolerated.
Onjali Rauf came to visit our Year 7 students when I was still teaching. She was absolutely brilliant and a great role model for the students (as is JKR, but I don't think she's doing school visits). It makes me both sad and angry that anyone who disagrees with the fashionable proscribed views (gender ideology in the case) has to be cancelled by these "moral arbiters". Good to see other authors to speak up.
Isn’t it time for some sort of legal challenge as we have seen with Sex Matters and Graham Linehan? The press is beginning to crawl out of the boulders that have been pinning them down and might even do a bit of good old fashioned reporting