Publishers scared of cancel culture made me rewrite my book, says Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz was told to rewrite his latest children’s book and remove jokes because publishers were terrified of cancel culture, he has claimed.

The best-selling author said children’s publishers were “more scared than anybody” about causing offence, and he was given a list of things he “could and couldn’t say” regarding gender or ethnicity.

He suggested that the industry take inspiration from Ricky Gervais, who has defied the “shrill voices” of Twitter to make jokes about the trans debate.

Horowitz created the Foyle’s War series and has written three James Bond continuation novels. He is also a prolific children’s author, writing the Alex Rider and Diamond Brothers series.

His new Diamond Brothers book, Where Seagulls Dare, is a comical detective adventure aimed at children aged eight and over. Horowitz released it online, chapter by chapter, during lockdown to keep children entertained, and it will be published in print next month with all proceeds going to charity.

However, he told the Hay Festival: “I’m very, very scared by what you’re calling cancel culture. I think what’s happening to writers is extremely dangerous: where certain words are hidden, where certain thoughts are not allowed any more, certain activities obviously to do with gender or to do with ethnicity.

“And the kickback that comes with these things – I have just suffered, from my last book, notes from my publisher which absolutely shocked me, about things which I could or couldn’t say. Children’s book publishers are more scared than anybody.”

Horowitz said afterwards that he had to do a “fairly extensive” rewrite. He was asked to remove jokes related to “the usual -isms” because the publishers feared that some of his jokes “could be misconstrued in this present climate”.

He went on: “The stark contrast thrown up by social media, whereby something is either very good or very bad but there’s nothing in between, is leading to a culture of fear.

“That is the bigger problem. It’s not about cancellation. It’s not about anger. It is about the fear that all creative people must now feel if they are going to write.

“I believe that writers should not be cowed. We should not be made to do things because we’re so scared of starting a storm on Twitter.

“How do we pull back from that? Watch Ricky Gervais, for one. Watch some of the people who are daring, and just realise that all these shrill voices are being amplified by social media but actually they have nothing to say.”

Horowitz also spoke about his son, Cass, who is a special adviser to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor.

Explaining that his politics had moved to the Left since Brexit, Horowitz joked: “My son, who is in government, has gone very much further to the Right. It should be the other way around, shouldn’t it? Old people are meant to be more Right-wing and young people are meant to be more Left-wing.”