Good piece.

I didn't want to start a new thread and this Unherd article by Sarah Ditum seemed a reasonable fit for this one

The Left's ugly free-speech fetish - UnHerd https://share.google/nrh523nVhDmlRRzhe

Cancel culture now coming for the 'left'...wah! Suddenly it's wrong.

I've just listened to the interview on RTE on my lunch break. God, the presenter was DREADFUL. Basically, why can't you be kind ,John Boyne, to this poor persecuted minority, and why are you even courting this controversy instead of just keeping your mouth shut? Is that an accurate reflection of RTE's views when they deign to touch on this topic?

I thought John's responses were good but he was much more apologetic and hand wringing than he should have been, presumably because of the attitude of the presenter.

Well I have heard it often about Down Syndrome children. But yeah it sounds a bit weird and patronising. I'm actually amazed RTÉ had the balls to interview John Boyne.
There hadn't been much on the subject since Joe Duffy's call in show , which produced the wrong result of course : nearly everyone is a terf. After which they shut the door quick smart and reverted to be kind generalities

Thank you DeanElderberry, that was a good listen.

The questions from listeners though! "My daughter is a TW and she's lovely - TW are gentle, kind and loving people"
As John Boyne said, we wouldn't say that about any other group of people!

John Boyne is on RTÉ Radio 1 right now talking about this - should be listenable again online in an hour or so.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/

Thank you for all the advice to read the Elements quartet. After devouring Water in a day, I’m now on Earth. Having never read JB before, I’m now listening to a new author, who writes incredibly beautifully. I will enjoy reading his work, as I avoided the Boy in the Pyjamas when it was released.

Something tells me that PollyNomial isn’t here to engage in good faith.

Isn't that the job of a writer though?

To enable us to see from everyone's point of view?

Surely you are not suggesting that an SS officer could never feel pain in losing a child?

Oh stop it.

I went to buy the Elements the other day. I do love Boyne’s writing and have been meaning to read the novellas for ages so it seemed good timing. The bookshop is very ‘woke’. I have overheard customers loudly dissing JKR in there before and may of the staff were rainbow pins etc. The young man who served me was VERY gender non conforming and I wondered idly if he was inwardly judging me for my choice of book but then he said ‘it’s great they’ve put all these in one compendium but I just love the small individual volumes myself’. It was cheering to meet someone just genuinely (and quite fabulously) non conformist and not ‘trans’. This chimes with other recent interactions I’ve had with the younger set. Hopefully common sense is reasserting itself.

It's called 'writing'. It comes from the human imagination.

That's very charitable about a person who deliberately hoodwinks the gullible into sympathising with the commandant of a Nazi death camp.

Yes, that was a pleasant surprise! There was quite a bit of criticism in the Irish media, which is another indication that the tide is slowly turning. Fingers crossed.

Diarmaid Ferriter (UCD histoy lecturer) wrote an article in the IT that frowned upon the students' decision.

Gender critical women have had a hard time in France. So things are not as good as they seem in that article. See the publication of "Transmania".

Good call. I'll have to admit, on this occasion, to the same fault. I'm going to excuse myself though, as a fellow 'terf', he feels like family.

Excuse me, Julie Bindel:
'As one of our great writers ..'

John Boyne one of your greatest writers?

It's reminiscent of Seamus Heaney being included in the Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry, which prompted his response :
Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised
My passport's green.
No glass of ours was ever raised
To toast The Queen.

It's the same old story - Irish if you do something bad, British if you win a prize.

Happy to read this, I hope JB is doing well through all of this unnecessary fuss

His writing is incredible!

John Boyne wins a literary prize in France

https://archive.ph/bMJwe

https://unherd.com/2025/09/john-boyne-refuses-to-be-cancelled/

It seems quite a coup, rarely awarded to non-French writers, and I've seen no report of it anywhere. Tbh I think that's down to the ignorance and chauvinism of British literary circles as much as their pearl clutching over his 'terfism'.

Any road up

Congratulations John Boyne 🥳💐🎊👏

Echo Chamber is good if you need something lighter. JB has something for everyone's tastes.

@ItsCoolForCats The Heart’s Invisible Furies is one of my all time favourite books, I didn’t like the start and wanted to give up but my husband convinced me to give it a bit longer and I’m so glad I did. I’ve not read the Elements series as much as I love his writing they sound quite depressing and I’m in a phase where I need something a bit lighter just now - they’re on my list for when the phase changes though.

I know it's not really better but JB says himself it's book sales and readers that count, not awards.

I've just finished Earth today. I'm waiting for the next two novellas in the series to come into the library as they are out at the moment. So as shit as this is for him, all this publicity has hopefully got more people reading his books. And it has further exposed the totalitarian nonsense that is going on in the literary and arts scene.

The Elements Series wasn't on my radar before the whole Polari Prize debacle. I've also got the Heart's Invisible Furies lined up to read.