Publishers slammed following rewrite of Roald Dahl books to remove ‘critical language’

Books written by children’s author Roald Dahl have been re-written to remove ‘critical language’. The edits to the classic books have been made by Dahl’s British publisher Puffin Books.

New editions of the books are available in bookshops now. Passages which relate to gender, mental health, race, and weight have been changed in the new editions.

One example of the changes is in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. Where Augustus Gloop was described as ‘enormously fat’, he is now depicted as being just ‘enormous’.

Another example is in ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. The word ‘black’ has been removed from a description of tractors in the book. The description now reads “murderous, brutal-looking monsters”.

The rewriting of some passages has been heavily criticised by other writers and authors. Salman Rushdy tweeted to say: “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed.”