The Queen Consort appeared to wade in to the row over changes to Roald Dahl books, as she urged authors to resist curbs on freedom of expression.
Speaking at a Clarence House reception to mark the second anniversary of her online book club, the Reading Room, she told assembled writers: “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.”
Camilla, who was joined by the King at the event today looked up with a smile as she added: “Enough said.” Her comments were greeted by laughter and cheers of “here here.”
As controversy erupted this week over changes to the language used in Dahl’s work to remove anything that may be deemed offensive authors and the Prime Minister rushed to condemn the move.
The publisher of Dahl’s work, Puffin books has removed words like “fat” to describe characters and gender neutral terms are also now being used.
Author Salman Rushdie branded the move “absurd censorship”, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying works of fiction should be “preserved and not airbrushed”.
Camilla’s project, previously known as The Reading Room after being started as reading lists published on Instagram during lockdown in January 2021, has now become The Queen’s Reading Room.
It is hoped it will help boost a global love of literature.
It is Camilla’s first charity since she became Queen Consort and previously as the Duchess of Cornwall.
Celebrated crime author Peter James who attended the event said of Camilla’s intervention: “There is an old tradition in publishing, of publish and be damned, and I think Her Majesty was just endorsing that to some extent.
“The big question is how far back are we going to go? Are we going to censor Dickens? There are some pretty tough stuff in Dickens that is quite offensive. Are we going to look at Shakespeare? I think what we have got to accept is that it was a moment in time and this is now.
In contrast Richard E Grant said: “I’ve always thought what’s amazing about Britain is that there’s no restriction on freedom of speech.
“That’s the whole point of it, you should be able to say whatever you have to say.
“Somebody somewhere is going to be offended, there’s no question of that.
“You go back just ten years in literature there is something that wouldn’t be acceptable now.
“I suppose the good thing is that it has opened up the conversion about inclusivity.”
