Updating Roald Dahl's Language

Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being updated by the publisher Puffin. 

 

Puffin have hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author’s text to make sure the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, resulting in extensive changes across Dahl’s work. 

 

Edits have been made to the original text – and some passages not written by Dahl have been added. But the Roald Dahl Story Company said “it’s not unusual to review the language” during a new print run and any changes were “small and carefully considered”. 

 

In "The Witches", a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that”. 

 

In previous editions of "James and the Giant Peach", the Centipede sings: “Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat / And tremendously flabby at that”, and, “Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire / And dry as a bone, only drier”. 

 

Both verses have been removed, and in their place are the rhymes: “Aunt Sponge was a nasty old brute / And deserved to be squashed by the fruit”, and, “Aunt Spiker was much of the same / And deserves half of the blame”. 

 

Descriptions of characters’ physical appearances have been reworked. The word “fat” has been cut from every new edition of relevant books, while the word “ugly” has also been culled, the Daily Telegraph reported. Even "attractive" is not to be condoned.

 

Augustus Gloop in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is now described as “enormous”. In "The Twits", Mrs Twit is no longer “ugly and beastly” but just “beastly”. And in "Esio Trot", Mrs Hoppy is not an “attractive middle-aged lady” but a “kind middle-aged lady”. 

 

Additionally, references to “female” characters have disappeared. Miss Trunchbull in "Matilda", once a “most formidable female”, is now a “most formidable woman”. 

 

Gender-neutral terms have been added in places – where "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"’s Oompa Loompas were “small men”, they are now “small people”. The Cloud-Men in "James and the Giant Peach" have become Cloud-People. 

 

Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company made the changes in conjunction with Inclusive Minds, which their spokesperson describes as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature”.