JK Rowling called ‘Britain’s nastiest novelist’ in New Statesman

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts.

I've never seen her quote tweet a smaller account negatively that didn't post something abusive or slander her. Why should she be silent in the face of threats and personal abuse?

I can't stomach Val McDermid's books either, they are unrelentingly violent and horrific violence at that, much like Jo Nesbo who just seems to write violence for violence sake.

No tweets then, PrawnLiberationFront?

How odd to be writing a spiteful article about someone he’s clearly wildly envious of while, making money out of using her name in his headline, and yet him thinking that she’s the nasty one 🙄

Apropos of nothing - my daughter's new soup mug:

And you'd come off equally classless and tacky no doubt. Especially if you were arguing with a teenager on twitter, which Rowling inexplicably seems to spend a great deal of time doing.

Stephen King runs a foundation to support artists who can't work due to health conditions, and has fundraised millions to help poor families with heating bills.

Thomas Harris is a long standing volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation centre.

Just because someone's not shouting about their charitable work doesn't mean they're not doing it.

If I'd made billions of pounds all from my own hard work and imagination I'd brag about it too (not I think JKR does any bragging).

Gets comfy...

Come on, where's the next bit?

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts.

Really? Could you provide some linked tweets, which show that, please?

She is downright childish on twitter and regularly bullies and dogpiles much smaller accounts. She also brags about how much money she has which is a bad look on anyone.

It's my considered opinion that Nick Hilton is a Whingeing, Inadequate, Middle-aged Patriarchist.

I agree that all opinions should be printed and we definitely shouldn’t exist in echo chambers, but shouldn’t part of the condition of getting into print be that there’s some intelligence and critical thinking in the piece?

I thought it was a particularly stupid and badly-written piece, and not just because I disagree with it. It seemed to conflate, either deliberately or accidentally, writing about nasty things with being a nasty person. It's a very peculiar mistake for a grown-up to make - to take just one of many examples, JG Ballard, who wrote very dark novels, was apparently a sweetheart in real life. The writer also appeared never to have read any other crime fiction, judging by his shock that a crime novel should contain references to murder, torture and child sexual abuse.

@viques 😅😅 Thank you. I'm looking forward to the next instalment.

Love that @viques. 👏👏

@DataPestle Yes, sure. As I said, the piece stands or falls on its merits, or lack of them. but it's not going to hurt JKR, and the storm in a teacup might actually do a bit of good; it may well peak a few more NS readers.

@duc748 I agree that all opinions should be printed and we definitely shouldn’t exist in echo chambers, but shouldn’t part of the condition of getting into print be that there’s some intelligence and critical thinking in the piece? I shouldn’t just be able to say “Ban jigsaws because they’re nasty and promote division and confusion and cause trauma to people unable to complete jigsaw puzzles, nasty wicked things”.

It’s ok - good, actually - to disagree, but what makes it interesting and worthwhile is evidence and thought, not just crying and repetition of non-truths, don’t you think?

Brava to viques - very funny. You should send it in to the NS.

Accusations are admissions...

Insecure

A rather strange word he used to describe JKR. She may be many things but I don't imagine insecure is one of them.

So a woman worries about the things, men (mostly men) do to each other AND to innocent women, and a man writes she’s being “nasty”.
How about him focusing on the men who commit all the nasty crimes JKR is mirroring in her books.

Miss Marple counted the stitches for the second time. Really, she mused to herself, she had surely knitted enough argyle socks for her godson Nick - the minor columnist and would be polymath - over the years to have more confidence in her ability to successfully turn a heel. But poor Nick, for all his earlier promise , was ,as he approached middle age, turning out to be a tetchy and snippy man , all too quick to criticise and fuss, especially, Miss Marple had observed, if the object of his criticism was a woman. So it behove her, for the sake of a more pleasant atmosphere, to ensure that socks knitted for Nick were as comfortable on his sensitive feet as she could make them. The weekend ahead was going to be a tricky one, without uncomfortable socks added to the mix.

It was not often that Jane Marple entertained in her own home, she no longer employed enough staff to deal with both cooking and cleaning to her own high standards (although fortunately she had instructed Maria, her cleaner, in the art of hospital corners ) and the local gastro pub was most obliging in providing delicious meals that only needed to be reheated in the microwave and decanted into the beautiful dinner service Jane had inherited from her dear mother. She was however, beginning to wonder if the combination of Nick staying for the weekend, and a dinner party planned for the Saturday evening where the guest of honour was a woman Miss Marple had long admired both for her literary skills and extraordinary humanitarian work, was actually ,on second thoughts, a good idea.

She chided herself for such a ridiculous thought, instead she should be looking forward to hosting and enjoying a civilised lively debate around her dinner table.

But just to be on the safe side she would make sure the good steak knives, the peen hammer, the box of rat poison, the decorative swords her father had been gifted by an eastern potentate, the fireside poker and her best letter opener were all safely locked away in the garden shed along with the now illegal weed killer she had so wisely bulk bought before the EU had banned it.

Jane Marple was a wise woman, well versed in the vagaries of human nature.

(inspired by a poster upthread who is also planning their own murder mystery!

I can't get angry with the NS for this; should it only be pieces I agree with get printed? The review stands or falls on its own merits. I'm sure it'll be all over the letters page next week.

Julie Bindel's* crowdfunder 😃

• I think it's the right Julie (I'm thinking of just putting 'Julie B' in future)

Silly boy.