To think Roald Dahl books should be banned in schools and libraries....

[Oakenbeach]

.... because he’s known to have had expressed some highly anti-Semitic opinions.

Yep. I think they should be banned in those specific places, along with Amazon.
They everyone who can afford them will buy in proper bookshops, and donate to charity after their kids have read them.
Banning will have the effect of making them desirable, and any thing which makes books desirable is a good thing.

At a time when children probably read the least due to being addicted to video games let's take one of the most captivating authors and ban his books.

Great idea.

Should we burn them as well?

Guys, it was the winter solstice yesterday...there were always going to be a few snowflakes...

Having read and re-read them many times I can't say I ever noticed.

Now if you said David Walliams I'd agree, they really are rubbish (no idea of his personal views re Judaism though).

I think the good that Roald Dahl books have done children has weight in te argument. A Rolf Harris painting or Garry Glitter CD wouldn’t enrich a child’s life, but learning to love books improves a child’s prospects so enormously. Dahl has done that for many children so I think we can take the books for what they are, but certainly discuss how wrong the man’s views were. I think to take his books away would be to the detriment of children. Keeping his books will foster reading skills in so many youngsters - and it won’t propogate antisemitism because there is none in the books themselves.

Roald Dahl's books are terrific and children love them. His published works have no connection to his private opinions - if indeed he was anti-Semitic.

There are all manner of artists and creative folk who might not share the opinions you do but who have contributed meaningfully to the canon in some way. You can't ban someone's creative output because you don't share their views. Personally I can't stand the way Nicky Minaj and Dr Dre etc drone on about fat asses and use the N word liberally in their music but I don's see anyone racing to ban that, do you? is the N word more or less offensive than being anti semitic?

By your line of argument, OP, the general public would only have access to works of literature/music/art/film etc emanating from individuals approved of by an established board with the power to approve or destroy. That's called Stalinism. .

His views on animal welfare are what should get him banned. Super gluing birds to trees cannot be tolerated.

Listen to the Evil Genius podcast - there's one on Roald Dahl and lots of others they have dug up dirt on. Doesn't mean they weren't good at their day jobs though. Often comments are "of their time" and also taken from a large statement which is less inflammatory, no idea if this was the case here. Do check out the podcast though

He was kind enough to give me a poem before he died, I treasure it a lot. Sadly I can't share it as it's not published!

Brilliant idea of glueing nasty people on their heads to the floor though @Jenniferturkington

Jennifer, the supergluer of birds in the book is the bad guy and meets a grotesque punishment! Dahl in no way encouraged the supergluing of birds! The treatment of the tortoises in Esio Trot is a bit dodgy though and I’m not keen on that one!

I'm a primary school teacher.

Roald Dahl has turned many reluctant children on to reading in my classes - the good in that outweighs his personal opinions for me. I have Year 3 this year and they have been utterly captivated by George's Marvellous Medicine.

No books should be banned. I'll read what I want and form my own opinions thank you very much.

Roald Dahl’s books are, next to Harry Potter, probably the most requested and borrowed books from the library where I work. It would be a huge shame to deny children an opportunity to get interested in reading because the author spouted some unsavoury views.

You’d soon empty a library of half its books if you delved closely enough into every author’s background. Personally, I object to the fairly overt Christian themes in CS Lewis’s Narnia books, but I certainly wouldn’t stop a child from reading them.

Instilling a love of reading is giving children skills which will help them form intelligent opinions on issues such as racism when they are older. Surely this is what we should be encouraging, not censorship of reading material?

Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter are convicted criminals. What Roald Dahl is alleged to have said is bad, but nothing like as bad as multiple cases of sexual assault on minors.

If RH and GG had been of RD’s generation, they’d not have been convicted. If RD had said the things he said today he’d likely be a criminal, convicted of promoting racial hatred!

I don't think your dogs are in the same fight there OP - paedophilc criminals convicted vs unpleasant points of view. You are trying to compare apples and oranges.

Out of curiosity are you one of these ifolk who feel that authors shouldn't write from the perspective of someone they are not? As in if you aren't a native America, a refugee or a one legged woman who successfully works a can can dancer , you therefore have no right to imagine such a character or use that imagined experience in your novel?

I don't think your dogs are in the same fight there OP - paedophilc criminals convicted vs unpleasant points of view.

Well at least ban Alice in Wonderland then... google Lewis Carroll!

It's not excusing the behaviour. I actually think it's the opposite in a way. It's acknowledging how easy it is to succumb to whatever the stupid, ugly thinking happens to be in the time you live. It's so easy to be smug and think "I would have known better" when chances are most of us would't have.

Absolutely @MrsTerryPratchett

My father was Jewish. I have absolutely no problem with Roald Dahl's books - I have most, if not all, of them on the shelf in my living room.

Let's have people going round houses to look for works by people with unsavoury opinions & views. These people could bring them into the streets and burn them publicly.

I don’t agree that anything should be banned.

Loving some of the justification on here though “but his books are really good”.

Like if he wrote utter tripe we should ban the nasty bigot

As PP have said, rather than decimate our cultural heritage by banning classic books that have taught tens of millions of children to read over many decades, use Dahl's past to inform debate and to teach our children what's not acceptable and why. So sick of the knee-jerk reaction to ban everything.

I wonder if I can find some of his books set in Gill Sans?

No.