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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Robert McCrum

Gay sheikh creates a desert storm

As I predicted last week, the Dubai Literary Festival, sponsored by Emirates, is finding it difficult to reconcile the rigours of free speech with the desert kingdom's paranoia about drugs, homosexuality and Judaism. Despite its ambition to "celebrate the world of books in all its infinite variety", this lavish festival has got off to a shaky start by banning Observer writer Geraldine Bedell, author of The Gulf Between Us, on the grounds that the novel depicts a gay sheikh with an English boyfriend. This move has inspired an epidemic of second thoughts among the distinguished authors scheduled to attend. Margaret Atwood has withdrawn, citing the issue of censorship. The writers' group English PEN has also denounced the event. What next for the Emirates PR department?

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