JK Rowling and the bitter battle of the book world

The literati is splitting into two rival camps in an incendiary argument over trans rights — and JK Rowling is at the centre. Katie Law reports from the increasingly toxic front line
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Katie Law @jkatielaw23 October 2020

JK Rowling's new book Troubled Blood turns out to be a brutally apt description of the current state of play in the literary world, as a growing number of high-profile authors are becoming embroiled in the transgender war that began earlier this year after she posted a tweet mocking the use of the word “people” who menstruate instead of “women”. “We live in an extremely polarized era and this is a matter of piling on what is perceived to be the ‘right’ side,” says Lionel Shriver, who was one of 58 names to sign an open letter “In Solidarity with J K Rowling” to the Sunday Times at the end of September. “This has become one of those trigger issues for getting on one’s high horse.”

The trigger in question is a sadistic, cross-dressing serial killer who Rowling has included, albeit as a minor character, in her fifth Cormoran Strike thriller, written under her pseudonym Robert Galbraith. “One wonders what critics of Rowling’s stance on trans issues will make of a book whose moral seems to be never trust a man in a dress,” was how one early reviewer pitched it. He might as well have thrown a stick of dynamite into an already smouldering tinder box. The hashtag #RIPJKRowling started trending on social media, with Rowling being labelled a “transphobic b***h” and worse. Transgender rights activist Paris Lees was not alone in pointing out that this kind of abuse happens to trans people all the time. But should any of it be tolerated?

Writers including Ian McEwan, Sir Tom Stoppard, Amanda Craig, Jenni Murray and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, together with Shriver, were quick to come to Rowling’s defence, putting their names to the letter stating that Rowling “has been subjected to an onslaught of abuse that highlights an insidious, authoritarian and misogynistic trend in social media”. It was written by Stella O’Malley, a psychotherapist and author of books about anxiety and bullying, who presented the Channel 4 documentary, Trans — Kids: It’s Time To Talk. The letter became an i-petition and currently has almost 20,000 signatures.

Three days later, authors Daisy Johnson and Kiran Millwood Hargrave initiated a “message of love and solidarity for the trans and non-binary community”. It was posted on thesecondshelf.com, an online feminist book shop. “We stand with you, we hear you, we see you, we accept you… Non-binary lives are valid, trans women are women, trans men are men, trans rights are human rights.” Jeanette Winterson, Malorie Blackman, Candice Carty-Williams and Juno Dawson were among the first signatories, with the list growing to 1,500 names before it was closed.

A few days ago, American YA novelist Maureen Johnson picked up the baton in the US and has circulated an almost-duplicate open letter around North American publishing circles. Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman are among the big-name signatories of 1,200 so far. There is no reference in either letter to Rowling, but it’s hard not to see them as retaliation. Daisy Johnson declined to comment but Allison Devers, who runs The Second Shelf, believes that is not the case. “I hadn’t seen the Sunday Times letter when I signed. The idea that this was antagonistic or our letter in support of a marginalised group was a direct response isn’t true.”

But according to Debbie Hayton, a trans woman teacher who signed the Times letter, “The fact that a response to a letter that expresses support for Rowling is another letter supporting trans people implies you can’t do both and that’s wrong,” she says. “I might be a trans woman but in this debate I am on the side of reason, and therefore stand with Rowling.”

Costa First Novel Award winner Sara Collins, who signed The Second Shelf letter, concurs with Devers. “I was happy to sign it because I saw it as a message of love and solidarity for the trans community. Having been the target of racism and misogyny myself, I know what a difference that kind of visible support can make and the letter clearly stood on its own”. Another signatory is Fox Fisher, the trans, non-binary illustrator, author and self-styled “educator” who resigned in June from The Blair Partnership, which also represents Rowling, after the agency refused to “re-educate staff on transgender rights”. Fisher puts it differently: “I think the intent was quite clear. People are condemning [Rowling’s] derogatory and misleading views on the transgender community. A lot of people are mortified by her behaviour and comments.”

Candice Carty-Williams was one of the authors to sign the message of love and solidarity for the trans and non-binary community
Matt Writtle

Nor does Fisher see #RIPJKRowling as a real death threat. “The hashtag refers to the ‘death of an author’ as people are grieving someone who they believed had compassion for a minority such as transgender people.” Stella O’ Malley has hit back, branding Fisher’s response “disingenuous and dishonest”. In March Rowling renovated her 162-acre Perthshire family estate and put up four-foot high security gates, with round-the-clock security guards, according to one visitor.

A further twist was the sacking last week of author Amanda Craig as a judge of the feminist magazine Mslexia’s fiction and memoir competition. “I was told I was being dropped because of objections to my signing this [Sunday Times] letter by one of the other judges. What makes me angry is the ludicrous situation of a woman being bullied by a magazine that’s supposed to promote women writers,” she says. But while it “was no skin off my nose” to be dropped, another prominent signatory was too anxious about losing her job to speak on the record.

Shriver, also sacked as a judge by Mslexia in 2018 after she questioned the wisdom of Penguin Random House’s mission statement claiming that by 2025 it hoped its authors and staff would reflect the diversity of British society, calls The Second Shelf letter a “tribal” response. Mslexia's editor Debbie Taylor said that Craig and Shriver were sacked because they expressed views that were not consistent with its ethos. Famously outspoken, Shriver has been criticised by some for racism in her novels. “I was asked recently if there was anything I wouldn't write about. I said I would probably think twice about having a trans villain for fear of the reaction,” she says. She hasn’t read Troubled Blood but says “the trans community has refused to make any distinction between a trans character and one that simply wants to cross dress. They made a big to-do about the fact that trans people are not cross dressers and now they want to blur the distinction. I don’t think they can have it both ways”.

Fisher disagrees: “It’s clear [Rowling] is using a tired and harmful trope of a man dressing up as a woman being some sort of villain. It’s sad that she is resorting to such outdated and harmful stereotyping that will continue to make life harder for people like me, and I do question her motives.” Hayton has read Troubled Blood and says: “I am sensitive to transphobic abuse but there was nothing to see here. The book is denigrated for featuring a ‘transvestite serial killer’ but it’s not about transgender people at all. It’s about male hatred of women.” For Devers, who donates profits from Harry Potter book sales to trans charities, “Rowling said she was educating herself about trans people for her book and I'm going to trust her on that. She’s been very clear about how this character came to be.”

Harry Potter star, Emma Watson, has come out against Rowling
AFP via Getty Images

After Rowling’s original tweet, she wrote a long, self-justifying essay about women’s and trans rights, describing her own experience of domestic abuse, and stating "I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth." This created more tension in the film world, with Harry Potter stars Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Eddie Redmayne publically coming out against Rowling, Robbie Coltrane and Brian Cox standing in support of her; and Jonathan Ross withdrawing his support for her, but only after talking to his daughter.

Troubled Blood meanwhile has sold 228,000 copies in a month and Rowling’s new children’s book, The Ickabog, comes out in November, despite reports of some younger employees working on the book at Hachette threatening to down tools. “It’s a story about truth and the abuse of power. To forestall one obvious question: the idea came to me well over a decade ago so it isn’t intended to be read as a response to anything that’s happening in the world right now,” Rowling has said. David Shelley, Rowling’s editor, declined to comment. “It’s a very sensitive issue,” says a company insider.

Many see it as a generational divide, with older people being more likely to support Rowling. “Even discussing JK Rowling has become a problem,” says my 26-year-old son. “Woke millennials who grew up loving Harry Potter are nuancing their answers on dating apps like Hinge about whether they still like her books. If it continues, it’s possible no one will read the books in five years time. This really is cancel culture at work.”

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