Image at right: Roald Dahl's tyrannical school principal, Miss Trunchbull, was originally a "formidable female". She is now a "formidable woman". However, this and other changes to Dahl's characters are now confined to the abridged versions of the books, leaving the originals as the author described them.
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Background information
The information below relating to revisions to Roald Dahl's children's books has been abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Roald Dahl'. The full text can be accessed at
The information below relating to revisions to Enid Blyton's children's books has been abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry titled 'Enid Blyton'. The full text can be accessed at Revision of Roald Dahl's children's books.
Roald Dahl was a popular British author of children's literature and short stories. He was born on September 13, 1916, and died on November 23, 1990. His books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.
Dahl's children's works are usually told from the point of view of a child. They typically involve adult villains who hate and mistreat children and feature at least one 'good' adult to counteract the villain(s).
During his lifetime and shortly after his death, accusations were made that Dahl's writing included racist, misogynistic, and antisemitic sentiments. Dahl's family issued an apology regarding his antisemitic views.
In 2023, Puffin Books, which holds the rights to all Dahl's children's books, ignited controversy after they hired sensitivity readers to go through the original texts of Dahl's works. A sensitivity reader is someone who reads a literary work, looking for perceived offensive content, stereotypes, and bias, creating a report for an author or publisher with suggested changes. The review of Dahl's books led to hundreds of revisions.
The move was supported by several authors, most notably by Joanne Harris, chair of the British Society of Authors, but drew many more critical responses. Prominent public figures, including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, author Salman Rushdie, and Queen Camilla objected to the changes. It was reported that when Dahl was alive, he had spoken out very strongly against any changes ever being made to his books.
On 23 February 2023, Puffin announced it would release an unedited selection of Dahl's children's books as 'The Roald Dahl Classic Collection', stating 'We've listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl's books' and 'recognise the importance of keeping Dahl's classic texts in print'.
Revision of Enid Blyton's children's books
Enid Mary Blyton was an English children's writer. She was born on August11, 1897 and died on November 28, 1968. Blyton's books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. They have remained popular and have been translated into ninety languages.
Blyton's work became increasingly controversial among literary critics, teachers, and parents beginning in the 1950s due to the alleged unchallenging nature of her writing and her themes, particularly in the Noddy series. Some libraries and schools banned her works, and from the 1930s until the 1950s, the BBC refused to broadcast her stories because of their perceived lack of literary merit. Her books have been criticised as elitist, sexist, racist, xenophobic, and at odds with the more progressive environment that was emerging in post-World War II Britain, but they have continued to be bestsellers.
To address criticisms levelled at Blyton's work, some later editions have been altered to reflect more politically progressive attitudes towards issues such as race, gender, violence between young persons, the treatment of children by adults, and legal changes in Britain as to what is allowable for young children to do in the years since the stories were originally written (e.g. purchasing fireworks); modern reprints of the Noddy series substitute teddy bears or goblins for golliwogs, for instance. The golliwogs who steal Noddy's car and dump him naked in the Dark Wood in 'Here Comes Noddy Again' are replaced by goblins in the 1986 revision, who strip Noddy only of his shoes and hat and return at the end of the story to apologise. These changes have continued through to the present with mixed responses from readers and commentators.