Writers who are monsters - should their works be withdrawn by booksellers (WARNING! - Potentially distressing content)

[Quattrocento]

The case of Roger Took disturbed me. It's a disturbing case.

Article in the Spectator here
He's a convicted paedophile who happens to have written some well-regarded travel books. Should Amazon and other booksellers continue to stock books by him? What do you think?

God i wish there had been a warning on that article

Cant get it out my head now, i feel like crying my eyes out.

Fucking sick fucking bastard, he should be set alight and burnt to death very slowly. Never mind his fucking book.

beaniesteve, as a librarian I absolutely agree that a supplier of literature has to be very cautious about censorship. I also believe in the power of an informed clientele so would do my utmost to find an alternative publication to meet the customer's needs.
Interesting what you say about serious writers such as Gitta Sereny covering distressing true crime situations.
While Gitta's intentions were laudable and it is a thought-provoking read, IME it was mostly taken out on loan by ghoulish types also working their way through the plentiful, lurid canon on the Yorkshire Ripper and the Boston Strangler, ugh

I assume that you can buy Mein Kampf?

I sympathise with the feeling behind wanting to ban these books, but that is a step in a very wrong direction. Once you established such a principle you'd be amazed how quickly it would be leapt upon and misued.

Who would decide? Would you really like to have a government dept decide which books to 'disappear'?
How about simply books by any convicted criminal?
That would work until you started writing something the government didn't like and then "oh dear you were convicted of littering/speeding/maliciously standing at a bus stop. What a shame, but we have to burn your book"

It could include any of you who are writing books if you get an email with illegal pictures in it. The moment you open it you are a criminal under UK law even if you had no way of knowing. If you could prove that then you probably wouldn't go to prison, but you'd have it on your record and your books would be banned.

As Quattrocento said Nelson Mandela's books would be banned and maybe Lewis Carroll.

Also books by anyone in the French resistence in the war (that was criminal no matter what you think of it)

I agree Marina, how did your library classify the Gita Sereney book? I wanted it in Psychology because it was not a typical 'true crime' title but I ost the battle and we did end up selling it from under the counter.

I think there will always be a goulish customer base, take the books like ' child called it' and similar 'abuse' memoirs. My feeling is that many people read them for titilation and publishers are actually morally suspect for continuing to peddle what often amounts to nothing more than porn when comissioning these kinds of memoirs.

There was another book (possibly called 'Fragments'?) which the publisher pulled when it was discovered the writer had made up most of the story Was about the holocaust) but by the time it happed it had already made the best sellers lists.

Big public library, Gitta went in True Crime with the rest of the penny dreadfuls beanie
Interestingly, in my local branch library, they had put it in criminology/justice system, where I think, along with an Added Entry for psychology (criminal), is where it naturally belonged.
She is a great writer isn't she

I also can't get the article out of my head, and wonder if it could have been written another way. Would we have been as angry and likely to read on/remember/protest without the undoubtedly sensational beginning. Either way, I would rather not have read it because I would never have come across his work. But I think the writer probably chose that way because they were angry (can't go back to it to look at the name/sex).

Thanks for the idea that the police could still be investigating his associates. That helps a bit, but then why is his wife motivated to publicize the case now if that were the case? And everybody he knows has had more than a year to dispose of incriminating material.. I really can´t uunderstand it..

Those first few paragraphs were horrendous and I couldn't read them properly but the rest of the article was much more measured.

I'm glad you started this thread quattro - I don't know if you did it but there's a review of the book on Amazon that mentions his abuse conviction and his wiki page has been updated.

Lyra - there was no evidence that the abuse detailed at the beginning of the article happened. But there is no way of telling if it is fantasy or not. Horrifically in places where lives are cheaper, I think stuff like this probably does go on - Cambodia is very popular with paedophiles isn't it?

No I didn't update his wiki entry, nor post anything on Amazon, but I'm heartily glad that someone has.

I posted on Amazon, I've never done it before but I feel really strongly about this.

The link was hard reading, but I would feel worse if I had bought his book and read that to be honest, then found out what he had been convicted with.

I emailed Amazon too, I am expecting the same ambiguous email back as has been posted previously.

My thoughts are with his family and any child he has been in "contact" with.

I reluctantly agree that withdrawing the books is not the right way to go about this.

It is a dangerous precendent, and as others have stated, could be misused.

Making the case, and the conviction more widely known is one way of preventing him making more money out of his books. Having his reputation in tatters would probably hurt him more than having his books withdrawn, I expect he has already made enough money to live on for a while.

Btw, I looked up Mein Kampf. The state of Bavaria owns the copyright and controls the publishing of Mein Kampf. At present it does not allow reprints in Germany but cannot enforce this in other countries.

The comparison is not really relevant though, as Mein Kampf has a direct relation to Hitler's crimes. He made no attempt to hide his terrible views, as Took has done.

The disturbing thing is that Took was able to lead a normal life, and was well regarded in his field.

Hitler did his evil in broad daylight and for a world to see, took on the other hand, well

No sain, decent or normal person will buy his books if they know what he did.

If this causes one more person to stop seeing paedos as anything other than the manipulative, lying bastards they are, then the point is served.

There's a reason why even hardened criminals, some of them who were molested themselves as children, have to be kept separate from inmates like this.

I don't blame guards who turn a blind eye to someone getting hold of one of these things.

I am horrified by the content of the article, both the graphic descriptions and the lack of coverage that this case has had in the media but what I actually find most shocking are those who lied for this man, suggested to his wife that she should be "tactful" or that she was "jealous", or wrote of his good charchter to a judge.

This man is a monster, a rich and educated one perhaps but a monster nonetheless and his supporters are effectively enabling the abuse of children if his sentence is in any way reduced because of their words.

I do think it is important to hear how he refered to that poor, poor innocent little girl. That shows just how sick and warped these people are, they are not misguided or misjudged, they are evil and should be dealt with appropriately.

Men like that should not be allowed the freedom to take the life of a little girl in such a wholly horrific way. Yes it turns the stomach but it should ensure that horror never gets out of jail. Human rights should not overpower human wrongs - the human rights of that child are worth so much more than the degenerates who did that.

Would it be permissable to write Amazon reviews pointing this out do you think? If Amazon are not going to take the higher ground?

Jesus Christ at that article. I only managed the first one and a half parags. FFS why cannot people put warnings with links like these. Sick to my fucking gut at that one.

I got a reply from Amazon tonight:

Dear xxxxxx,

My name is Heather Kehoe and I represent the Amazon.co.uk
Executive Customer Relations group.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us and for bringing these
details to our attention. I understand your concerns regarding the
author in question. I wish to assure you that we are taking
your comments very seriously. Due to the nature of this complaint I
have passed all the details to our Legal Department for further
investigation.

Once again thank you for contacting us and I will endeavour to
update you as soon as possible.

Kind Regards

They seem to be taking it seriously, at least this time they are looking into it. After the ambiguous email Quattro got I was expecting the same.

There really should have been more warning about that article, I've only read the first paragraph and I feel sick and upset. I have a 5 year old dd, and honestly want to cry.

i have a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old daughter.

i cried, too, but that only lasted for a short while before i wanted to read this man had been sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

this is the first time i've ever found a reason to see capital punishment as justifiable.

i had no idea people would even fantasize about such a thing.

really, i didn't.

It's absolutely disgusting how there has been no press coverage of this. Google him and nothing comes up except for Womens Hour and The Spectator. Sometimes the British Establishment makes me sick.

I also had no idea that this was what paedophilia could mean. It's the sadistic part that shocks me because I suppose I thought it was a guilty compulsion that stemmed from being abused: that does not come across here. So maybe it's a good thing that I read it, even though I wish I could kill off those brain cells.