ON DAHL AND AUGUSTUS GLOOP, by Saviour Pirotta

 When readers ask me why I think historical fiction is important, my standard and honest reply is 'because we have to know the past to understand the present and shape our future.'

    I'm saying this because I have been following the public debate about Puffin's 'retouching' of Roald Dahl's books to make them more acceptable to modern audiences. As I'm sure all followers of this blog know, Penguin hired 'sensitivity readers' to remove language from his work that they think stigmatise people. Many have come out against this decision, and I am against it too, but for different reasons mostly quoted in the press.  

    One of the big changes is apparently calling Augustus Gloop in CATCF 'enormous' instead of 'fat', even though 'enormous' is still a negative label. At least is hasn't got the guilt associated with 'fat'. As someone who's been fat-shamed most of his life, I abhor that label. At school, it followed me around like a vindictive, whispering harpy, crushing what little self-confidence I had, even - I have to admit - driving me to suicidal thoughts at one point. Dahl was not popular in my country of origin when I was growing up. But there was a very similar character in our Italian primer called Pappo il Mangione, Pappo the Big Eater. In the illustrations he looked very much like Billy Bunter, forever stuffing his face, unable to stop binge eating. More often than not, he was shown with his shirt buttons rocketing off his fat belly. I lived in fear of the same thing happening to me and spent years sitting with my back straight and my tummy sucked in case the buttons flew off my school shirt.

    Words are might powerful things, and when they're given legitimacy by an author, in a book, that power is multiplied ad infinitum. The printed page gives them validity and acceptance. We teach kids to admire and look up to writers. If it's ok for them to label someone fat, why shouldn't the kids? 

    After that little rant, you must be wondering by now why I don't support the changes to Dahl's books. The reason is because Dahl wrote those horrible descriptions. He thought it legitimate to put them down on paper. They were a reflection of his world view, and his readers of the time found them acceptable. Millions still do. No amount of tinkering with text is ever going to change that. 

    Thankfully the world of books (and telly, art and films) is moving on from the likes of Roald Dahl and his privileged ilk (David Walliams, John Cleese etc). There's a plethora of books whose authors choose to celebrate the vibrant rainbow that make up humanity rather than sneer at anyone who's different. Let Dahl and his work be a testament to a world we are hopefully leaving behind. We have to know our past to help shape our future.

    Saviour Pirotta is the author of THE GOLDEN HORSEMEN OF BAGHDAD for Bloomsbury and the WOLFSONG and THE NILE ADVENTURES series for Maverick. Follow him on twitter @spirotta and on instagram @saviour2858.