Editors rewrite Roald Dahl’s books to remove controversial language

Fat, ugly and flabby are among the hundreds of words that have been removed from Roald Dahl’s children’s books so that the stories “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”.

Publishers have made a string of changes to Dahl’s work – primarily around language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race – after hiring “sensitivity readers” to check the books. They have also inserted sentences that were not written by the author.

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example, the character Augustus Gloop is described as “enormous” rather than “fat”.

Mrs Twit from The Twits is now just “beastly” rather than “ugly and beastly”.

References to female characters have also been changed to describe them as women rather than females, The Daily Telegraph found. Miss Trunchbull, for example, is described as a “most formidable woman” instead of “female”.

In The Witches, 59 changes were reported to have been made.

One 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.”

Gender-neutral terms have also been added. The Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are now called “small people” instead of “small men”. References to mothers and fathers have been replaced with “parents”, with mentions of girls and boys becoming “children”.

Other changes include “great flock of ladies” becoming “great group of ladies” and “the old hag” being replaced with “the old crow”. “She needs a really good spanking” has been changed to “She needs a really good talking to”. Mentions of skin colour have also been removed.

Publishers Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company – bought by Netflix in 2020 for a reported £500m – worked with Inclusive Minds to make the changes. Inclusive Minds describes itself as “a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature”.

A note from Puffin in the latest edition of the books says: “The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvellous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

A spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company said: “When publishing new print runs of books written years ago, it’s not unusual to review the language used alongside updating other details including a book’s cover and page layout.

“Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text. Any changes made have been small and carefully considered.”

Roald Dahl died in 1990. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide.