The Big Friendly Giant in The BFG no longer wears a black cloak and characters cannot turn 'white with fear', as the words 'black' and 'white' no longer exist in the new editions.Įlsewhere, the Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach are now known as 'Cloud-People'.Ĭhanges were made by Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company - bought by Netflix in 2021 for a reported £500 million.īut the review began in 2020 when the company was still run by the Dahl family who, the same year, apologised for the author's anti-semitic statements.ĭahl, a fighter pilot during the Second World War, is one of the best-selling children's authors in history with more than 250 million books sold.Īccording to The Telegraph, Matthew Dennison, Dahl's biographer said the author carefully chose his vocabulary, he said: 'I'm almost certain that he would have recognised that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children.'
Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a 'most formidable female', is now a 'most formidable woman' Mental health was another focal point for sensitivity readers with the words 'crazy' and 'mad', which Dahl used in a comic fashion, removed from his books. In The Witches, a paragraph describing them as bald under their wigs is followed shortly by a new line: 'There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.'Ī witch posing as a 'cashier in a supermarket' now works as a 'top scientist' and Matilda reads Jane Austen instead of Rudyard Kipling. Passages not written by the late author, who died in 1990, have also been added by the publisher to complete their new editions. Oompa-Loompas who were once 'small men' are now 'small people' and Fantastic Mr Fox's three sons have become daughters. Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a 'most formidable female', is now a 'most formidable woman', while her 'great horsey face' is now called 'her face'. Gender is also eliminated with books no longer referring to 'female' characters. Mrs Twit's 'fearful ugliness' has been chopped to 'ugliness' and Mrs Hoppy in Esio Trot is not an 'attractive middle-aged lady' but a 'kind middle-aged lady'. The word 'fat' has been wiped from every one of Dahl's books, with Augustus Gloop only described as 'enormous'
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