Queen Consort weighed in on Roald Dahl literary changes before publishers announced text to be kept in print

The Queen Consort was reading the room when she launched her book club charity The Reading Room on Thursday, as she appeared to weigh in on the Roald Dahl rewrites row, that has now concluded.

Earlier this week, Roald Dahl’s estate alongside Puffin publishers announced they were going to release edited works of Dahl's BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among others, to be more ‘suitable for modern audiences’.

Changes involved the word ‘fat’ being changed to ‘enormous’ when discussing Augustus Gloop, the words ‘crazy’ and ‘mad’ being removed due to mental health implications and the Oompa Loompas being classed as gender neutral.

Upon the news breaking, the publishers were met with huge backlash as numerous people were quick to criticise the removal or alteration of character’s appearances in British versions of Roald Dahl books.

Key figures included Camilla, the Queen Consort and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who voiced their disagreement with the literacy changes.

Camilla alluded to authors needing to 'remain true to [their] calling' and not 'impose limits on your imagination' when making her first appearance since Covid-19 at Clarence House, to not only mark the second anniversary of her book club but to announce that it would be turning into a charity to advance education and improve the appreciation of literature ‘among adults and children’ both in the UK and globally.

The book club followed the success of Her Majesty’s book club which initially launched on Instagram in January 2021, and was cemented from Camilla’s previous work with literary charities as the Duchess of Cornwall, namely the National Literacy Trust and becoming the Patron of BookTrust.

Notably Camilla has also been the Patron for Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity since 2017.

When addressing the guests which included decorated authors such as Jacqueline Wilson and Charlie Mackesy about the charity and festival, the Queen Consort not only announced the Reading Room's first literary festival on 11 June with speakers including Dame Judi Dench at Hampton Court Palace, but Her Majesty also thanked them for sharing their talents and for promoting literacy through their works.

Camilla said: “Please keep doing so and please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination. Enough said!"

In addition to the Queen Consort, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised the changes, with a spokesperson saying the works should be ‘preserved and not airbrushed’, while author Sir Salman Rushdie said the Dahl estate and Puffin publishers ‘should be ashamed’.

Rushdie continued on Twitter to state that even though Roald Dahl was no angel, the ‘small and carefully considered’ changes were deemed as ‘absurd censorship’.

It must be noted that not every edition of Roald Dahl’s works were being rewritten, as French and Dutch publishers believed the stories would lose their power if the small updates were made, citing that the rewrites ‘only concern Britain’.

While key figures and authors seemed to oppose the rewrite, there were some who believed the censorship to be a ‘very good thing’.

Poet and author Debjani Chatterjee said: “I think it's been done quite sensitively. Take the word 'fat'. They've used 'enormous'. If anything, I actually think 'enormous' is even funnier," in conjunction with ex-teacher Kate Clanchy, who said children's books must be treated carefully, after she had to revise her own memoir when subjected to criticism for some descriptions.

With public opinion divided upon the news of Puffin publishers and Roald Dahl's estate releasing editions of his works 33 years after his death, Puffin announced that they would 'keep the author's classic text in print' in 17 titles, which will be available later in 2023.