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‘Sensitivity readers’ for Roald Dahl books? What’s next?

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Sunday 19 February 2023 18:54 GMT
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We appear to be in the midst of an Orwellian literary dystopia
We appear to be in the midst of an Orwellian literary dystopia (Getty)

Roald Dahl has never made it onto my personal list of favourite children’s authors but news that his stories are being edited by “sensitivity readers” leaves me uncertain as to whether to laugh or cry.

We appear to be in the midst of an Orwellian literary dystopia that would surely leave Kaye Webb, pioneering editor of Puffin Books in the 1970s and 1980s, baffled and bewildered. Whatever next?

On Tuesday night we took three grandchildren to the RSC with the usual scrummage to be first to sit on “The Chair of Insults”, which included the following:

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