[ad_1]
Journalist Julie Burchill had a book deal canceled after her publisher said she “crossed the line” with her Islamophobic comments on Twitter.
Burchill’s publisher, Hachette’s label, Little, Brown, said he had decided not to publish Welcome to the Woke Trials because he had used indefensible language when communicating with journalist Ash Sarkar.
Sarkar said Burchill “quite openly subdued [her] Islamophobia”.
Little, Brown said that Burchill’s comments on Islam “were not morally or intellectually defensible” and “crossed a line regarding race and religion.” He added that his book had become “inextricably linked to those views.”
“We will no longer publish Julie Burchill’s book,” the statement said. “This is not a decision that we have made lightly. We passionately believe in free speech at Little, Brown and have always published authors with controversial or challenging perspectives, and will continue to do so. “
The book had been billed as “part memoirs and part accusation” of what happened to Burchill after she wrote an article for The Observer in 2013, which was removed after criticism that it contained transphobic language. At the time, the newspaper apologized for the offense caused in what it described as a “very charged debate.”
The editor had described the article as “a mischievous piece” in the Observer in defense of his friend Suzanne Moore, adding that Burchill had not “anticipated the virulent reaction his words would provoke.”
Later, Lynne Featherstone, the then-Democratic MP who had kept government equality brief in the coalition government, criticized Burchill and called on the Observer to fire her.
The book’s blurb added that Burchill had been “haunted by the mob of outrage”, and that the project would address the fallout of the piece and be told “with the common touch and unbridled vulgarity that has made Burchill a household name.”
Burchill rose to fame at the NME in the 1980s with scathing cultural and political writing and, following the Observer article, wrote online blog articles for the Spectator. He is currently a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph.
[ad_2]
