Writer at centre of cancel culture row goes to war with focus groups over revision of her memoir 

An author at the centre of a cancel culture row has said ‘fusspots’ revising her memoir advised her against saying a landscape had been ‘disfigured’.

Kate Clanchy, who wrote Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me, revealed her former publisher Picador recruited ‘sensitivity readers’ to ‘detect and reform problematic racism and ableism’ in her Orwell Prize-winning book.

It came after the 2019 memoir about her life as a state school teacher was criticised for allegedly portraying some pupils in a racist manner. 

Miss Clanchy, 57, said she was ‘horrified that people found prejudice and cruelty’ in the book and ‘went into the process’ of the memoir being scrutinised by the sensitivity ‘experts’ willingly.

Writing for website UnHerd, she said one focus group rated supposedly offensive words and passages on a scale of one to three. 

She wrote: ‘One Reader fusspots around single words: I should not use ‘disfigure’ of a landscape (infraction level 3, as presumably comparing bings – spoil heaps – to boils might be harmful to acne sufferers). 

Kate Clanchy (pictured), who wrote Some Kids I Taught And What They Taught Me, revealed her former publisher Picador recruited ‘sensitivity readers’ to ‘detect and reform problematic racism and ableism’ in her Orwell Prize-winning book

‘Nor should I use ‘handicap’ in its ordinary sense of ‘impede’ (infraction level 2, serious); and I should prefer the acronym ‘SEN’ to its origin phrase, special educational needs, because it is more inclusive (infraction level 2).’

Miss Clanchy, who was awarded an MBE in 2019, cut ties with Picador before the revised version of the book was published. 

Swift Press has reissued it without the changes but with other edits. 

Swift Press told the Daily Telegraph: ‘The only thing we wish to say is that minor revisions were made because Kate wished to make them.’