Roald Dahl publisher announces unaltered 16-book ‘classics collection’ | Books

A collection of Roald Dahl’s books with unaltered text is to be published after a row over changes made to novels including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches.

Dahl’s publisher, the Penguin Random House children’s imprint Puffin, was criticised this week for hiring sensitivity readers to go over his books, resulting in the removal or change of language deemed to be offensive. In response, it is to release Dahl’s works in their original versions, alongside its new texts.

Changes to Dahl’s books include using “enormous” rather than “fat” to describe Charlie’s antagonist Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly” to describe Mrs Twit in The Twits.

In James and the Giant Peach, a rhyme by the Centipede originally read: “Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat / And tremendously flabby at that,” and, “Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire / And dry as a bone, only drier.”

Now it has been changed to say: “Aunt Sponge was a nasty old brute / And deserved to be squashed by the fruit,” and, “Aunt Spiker was much of the same / And deserves half of the blame.”

Salman Rushdie, who is published by Penguin Random House himself, was among those to criticise Puffin, writing on Twitter that “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”

Philip Pullman – also published by Penguin Random House – said Dahl’s books should be allowed to go out of print, while prime minister Rishi Sunak said the issue was one of free speech.

Penguin Random House has now said it will publish a Roald Dahl Classics Collection, consisting of 16 titles. In a letter to staff, CEO Tom Weldon said the publisher acknowledged “the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print”.

The classics collection, out later this year, will “sit alongside the newly released Puffin Dahl books, and readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer,” said Weldon.

Weldon said the publisher was used to “taking part in cultural discourse and debate”. He added: “Sometimes that can be challenging and uncomfortable, and this has certainly been one of those times.”

In a public statement, Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s, said the publisher had “listened to the debate over the past week”, which had “reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation”.

A collection of Roald Dahl’s books with unaltered text is to be published after a row over changes made to novels including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches.

Dahl’s publisher, the Penguin Random House children’s imprint Puffin, was criticised this week for hiring sensitivity readers to go over his books, resulting in the removal or change of language deemed to be offensive. In response, it is to release Dahl’s works in their original versions, alongside its new texts.

Changes to Dahl’s books include using “enormous” rather than “fat” to describe Charlie’s antagonist Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly” to describe Mrs Twit in The Twits.

In James and the Giant Peach, a rhyme by the Centipede originally read: “Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat / And tremendously flabby at that,” and, “Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire / And dry as a bone, only drier.”

Now it has been changed to say: “Aunt Sponge was a nasty old brute / And deserved to be squashed by the fruit,” and, “Aunt Spiker was much of the same / And deserves half of the blame.”

Salman Rushdie, who is published by Penguin Random House himself, was among those to criticise Puffin, writing on Twitter that “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”

Philip Pullman – also published by Penguin Random House – said Dahl’s books should be allowed to go out of print, while prime minister Rishi Sunak said the issue was one of free speech.

Penguin Random House has now said it will publish a Roald Dahl Classics Collection, consisting of 16 titles. In a letter to staff, CEO Tom Weldon said the publisher acknowledged “the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print”.

The classics collection, out later this year, will “sit alongside the newly released Puffin Dahl books, and readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer,” said Weldon.

Weldon said the publisher was used to “taking part in cultural discourse and debate”. He added: “Sometimes that can be challenging and uncomfortable, and this has certainly been one of those times.”

In a public statement, Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s, said the publisher had “listened to the debate over the past week”, which had “reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation”.