Are millennials really driving ‘cancel culture’ - or is it their overcautious critics?

Older generations argue that young people’s insistence on equality in all things – including books – threatens to stifle free speech. But is that always true?I wouldn’t normally air my dirty literary linen in public, but here goes. When I finished writing my novel Putney, about a 13-year-old girl who has a “love affair” in the 1970s with an older man and realises decades later that it was actually abuse, my previous editor at Jonathan Cape chose not to publish it. The reasons emerged this year when he was interviewed in the Spectator. “If Lolita was offered to me today,” Dan Franklin said, “I’d never be able to get it past the acquisition team – a committee of 30-year-olds, who’d say: ‘If you publish this book we will all resign.’” He pointed to #MeToo and social media as fundamental factors: “You can organise outrage at the drop of a hat.”Fortunately, Bloomsbury’s acquisition team – overwhelmingly female and mixed aged – were brave enough to take on Putney, which was described in the Observer as “a Lolita for the era of #MeToo”. Whether there was any truth in his words or not, Franklin’s position reveals how much fear now exists in publishing. Related: Putney by Sofka Zinovieff review – a Lolita for the age of #MeToo ‘It’s only about not being an arsehole,’ my daughter said. ‘That’s not so difficult’ Related: Nabokov's Lolita: the latest thing millennials have apparently ruined Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2019-07-10 10:03:01 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Are millennials really driving ‘cancel culture’ - or is it their overcautious critics?"


Cape wins 'heated' five-way auction for biologist Raihani’s debut

Jonathan Cape has triumphed in a five-way auction for award-winning evolutionary biologist Nichola Raihani’s debut Together: How Cooperation Shaped Humankind. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Cape unveils Briggs' long-awaited collection Time for Lights Out

Jonathan Cape will publish Raymond Briggs' long-awaited Time for Lights Out in November, 13 years after the illustrator and author started work on the book about age and death. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Raymond Briggs's final book, which faces death 'head-on', due this year

Collection of short pieces, which has been in the works for more than a decade, takes stock of The Snowman author’s lifeRaymond Briggs is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s authors, the creator of characters from The Snowman to Fungus the Bogeyman. But in his forthcoming book Time for... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2019-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Harper Inspire novel to tell C S Lewis love story

Harper Inspire has acquired a fictional re-telling of one of the most famous love stories set in the world of books – the love affair between the US writer and poet Joy Davidman and C S Lewis. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-01-31 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Ex-Blackwell's bookseller scoops its Book of the Year

Former Blackwell’s bookseller Daisy Johnson has won the retailer’s Book of the Year for her "outstanding" Man Booker-shortlisted novel Everything Under (Jonathan Cape). Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Sex appeal sweeps FBF as Oxford don goes in 10 countries

Bloomsbury has pre-empted The Right to Sex, a book about male sexual entitlement and #MeToo by Oxford professor Amia Srinivasan. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Neurosurgeon Henry Marsh moves to Jonathan Cape for latest title

Jonathan Cape has acquired a third book from writer and neurosurgeon Henry Marsh, author of the hugely successful Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery (2014) and its follow-up Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery (2017), both published with Weidenfeld & Nicholson. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


New York Review of Books editor Ian Buruma departs amid outrage over essay

Writer and academic steps down after publishing and defending Jian Ghomeshi piece deemed to be at odds with spirit of #MeTooIan Buruma, the writer and academic, has stepped down from the editorship of the New York Review of Books after only 16 months, after he caused outrage by publishing and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-09-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Critics Weigh In on Art In #MeToo Era at PEN America's BKBF Panel

At the September 16 Brooklyn Book Festival, four critics and curators tackled one of the most hotly-debated topics in the book and arts worlds in the era of #MeToo: how should the public reckon with the works of abusive artists? Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Adaptive Books Acquires New Titles Plus the Zane Grey Estate

Founded in 2012 by veterans of the entertainment business, Adaptive Studios is an unusual business venture originally focused on repurposing moribund or abandoned movie scripts into new content for different media, including books, movies, and TV shows. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Cape to publish 'battle cry for difficult women'

Jonathan Cape has acquired Difficult Women, a history of modern feminism by journalist Helen Lewis. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-09-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


'Fine mind and right skills blend' won Bowler Faber post

Alex Bowler's "fine and curious mind", and the mix of skills he brought from his previous roles at both Jonathan Cape and Granta, together won him the coveted Faber publisher post, chief executive Stephen Page has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Feminist fiction drives big money at London book fair

Fierce bidding wars between publishers saw several big deals happen for politically charged novels at this year’s fair, as new books from Jeanette Winterson and Caitlin Moran were also revealed• What will you be reading next year? A roundup of London book fairFrom a distance, the only thing that... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2018-04-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Winterson’s take on Frankenstein to Cape

Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein will be published simultaneously by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Grove Atlantic in the US in autumn 2019. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


'Cat Person' to be published as standalone paperback

Jonathan Cape will publish the New Yorker short story which went viral, ‘Cat Person’, as a standalone paperback. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-03-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘We need real diversity’: Hearst’s Joanna Coles says more women in leadership will lead to culture change

The chief content officer at Hearst talks about #MeToo, print media's comeback, Snapchat's value to publishers and more. The post ‘We need real diversity’: Hearst’s Joanna Coles says more women in leadership will lead to culture change appeared first on Digiday. Continue reading at Digiday

[ Digiday | 2018-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Steve Bannon says #MeToo movement will be bigger than the Tea Party

Steve Bannon, the former White House insider and deposed head of Breitbart News, has high hopes for the #MeToo movement. In an interview published Friday in Bloomberg News, Bannon noted his belief that the movement against sexual misconduct–spearheaded by the #MeToo and Time’s Up organizers–will... Continue reading at Fast Company

[ Fast Company | 2018-02-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Science, Culture, and #MeToo in Whit Taylor’s ‘Ghost Stories’

Award-winning self-published comics artist Whit Taylor makes her trade publishing debut with 'Ghost Stories,' a collection of old and new comics short stores that will be published this month by Rosarium Publishing. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Oral history of Caribbean immigrants to Cape

Jonathan Cape has acquired an oral history of the generation of Caribbean immigrants who came to Britain after the war. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2018-01-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Cape scoops 'Cat Person' writer Roupenian's debut

Jonathan Cape has scooped the debut book from Kristen Roupenian, the author of 'Cat Person', a short story published in the New Yorker this week which went viral and triggered a wave of media coverage. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2017-12-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this