Skip to content

Books

Is It Okay to Bowdlerise Children’s Books?

Is It Okay to Bowdlerise Children’s Books?

Michelle Smith Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies Monash University Although several of his best-known children’s books were first published in the 1960s, Roald Dahl is among the most popular authors for young people today. The recent decision by publisher Puffin, in conjunction with The Roald Dahl Story Company, to

Members Public
flag of USA on grass field

When Govts Enforce Race Relations

George Ford Smith mises.org George Ford Smith is a former mainframe and PC programmer and technology instructor, the author of eight books including a novel about a renegade Fed chairman (Flight of the Barbarous Relic) and a nonfiction book on how money became an instrument of theft (The Jolly

Members Public
Rewrites of the Day

Rewrites of the Day

Roald Dahl’s books are being rewritten. Publisher Puffin has employed sensitivity readers to rewrite Dahl’s books. Words like fat, ugly and female have been removed. For example, “Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as ‘enormous’.” Is that much better than fat? To bastardise

Members Public
Strong Claims Made without Evidence

Strong Claims Made without Evidence

Chris Wilson Programme Director, Master of Conflict and Terrorism Studies University of Auckland Since the horrific attacks in Christchurch in 2019 there has been substantial and growing attention paid to the extreme right in New Zealand. The pandemic – and the conspiracy theories and anti-government sentiment that developed in response – increased

Members Public
Better Than the Book?

Better Than the Book?

“The book is better than the movie” is an old truism: but is it always true? Mostly, yes. The added bonus of books is the freedom of the reader to interpret, and the freedom of the author to add layers of complexity and nuance that cinema simply can’t encompass.

Members Public
The Divine Music of the Inklings

The Divine Music of the Inklings

As I wrote in a previous post, J R  Tolkien’s Catholic faith had a profound, if subtly expressed, influence on his most famous fictional work, The Lord of the Rings. But his religious expression is even more pronounced in his magnum opus, the collection of legends of “the Elder

Members Public
Faith, Fiction and J R R Tolkien

Faith, Fiction and J R R Tolkien

The 2019 biopic Tolkien was heavily criticised for almost completely omitting what was one of the central pillars of the author’s life: his Catholic faith. Trying to tell the story of Tolkien’s life without mentioning religion is like trying to tell the story of Hunter S Thompson without

Members Public
group of people beside coffee table

The Radical Left Wants to Change the Concept of Family

Jeffery L Degner mises.org Jeffery L Degner is an assistant professor of economics at Cornerstone University and a former Mises Summer Research Fellow. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in economics and history from Western Michigan University where he also earned an MA in applied economics. He is currently a

Members Public
Book Review – Charles Bean, If People Really Knew

Book Review – Charles Bean, If People Really Knew

Tiger Charles Bean – If people really knew – one man’s struggle to report the Great War and tell the truth by Ross Coulthart, Harper Collins. Censorship is nothing new.  Censorship by whom we might call the “good guys” is nothing new either. By censoring the message, the truth can be

Members Public
Book Review: Regaining a Nation; Equality and Democracy

Book Review: Regaining a Nation; Equality and Democracy

Rob Paterson REGAINING A NATION EQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY (2022) 238 pages Author: Dr John Robinson PhD Main Topic: The Benefits of Colonisation for New Zealand Publisher: Tross Publishing (RRP $35 incl. postage) Email : trosspub@gmail.com Rating 5 Star ***** Target audience: All Kiwis Reviewer: Rob Paterson, Retired Lawyer, Tauranga Book

Members Public