Writers who are monsters - should their works be withdrawn by booksellers (WARNING!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?

I don't understand why character witness statements had any bearing at all on his sentence.

It seems self-evident to me that you can have the Dalai Lama himself saying you're his best mate, but if you have those images on your hard drive, you should never be allowed into society ever again.

WTF? "Greater good"?????

That could make me come over all Daily Mail.

we should go down the library and BUUUUUUUURN them

Burn
burn
burn
burn

Well I for one would like to do what I can to see this case get wider publicity. As it stands, Roger Took's public reputation remains largely intact meaning he could potentially return to pretty much his old life in 3 years time.

There must be a lot of journalists on Mumsnet and it would be great if they could highlight this disgusting man, who, because he is rich and well connected, has escaped public oppobrium.

There's such a long history of white well-connected men getting away with horrible crimes, though. I'm surprised anyone's surprised. Whether it's the paedophile priests who were moved quietly on from parish to parish, or the assorted wifebeaters whose domestic violence is either ignored or describe as a 'private matter' or blamed on the woman for being a slut or a liar or 'provoking' him... most people don't want to believe that the nice well-spoken well-dressed man is a monster, it must all be lies made up by mad women...

What madamez said..and riven.

Good article. Horrible, distressing content but good in the sense that we know about this person.

riven, re the home education book could you tell me which one cos i have some and if i have the one it is id like to get rid of it, understand if you dont want to say on a public forum.

i used to know a guy who had been in prison, for minor offences, stealing etc, he told me that whenever a sex offender was brought to the jail, the guards would turn a blind eye and go off for 5/10 mins and let them do their worse.

Message withdrawn

I read the first page of that article and it was chilling

It was only after reading expats comments i went back and finished the article

This needs to be made public

How did those who did contact amazon do so, i couldnt find a link.

personally i don't think they should be pulled by law or legal methods because everybody has the right to earn a living once they have paid their debt to soceity.
i am not saying this to defend the man or to even suggest that his debt will ever truely be served to soceity but am coming from a strictly legal perspective.
however if you end up with a system where one is punished further simply by virtue of their profession (except where it is necessary, childcare etc) you end up with a two tiered justice system.

i do however support the idea of booksellers taking a moral stance and choosing not to stock their books and to fully inform their customers of why they are doing so.

as to the original question, i'd imagine that a lot of books written by monsters have been of huge importance to soceity to understand the minds of certain deranged leaders,figure heads or murderers. e.g. mein kempf or "monster" by the man who founded the crips who later went on to win a nobel peace prize.

I really think books like Mein Kampf etc are different as you know what you are buying with them. And the authors no longer profit from them.

Personally I would be very upset if I bought a Roger Took book then found out what he had done.

I didn't contact Amazon to get them to ban his books, I just wanted them to be aware as his case has not recieved much recognition and I feel people should be aware of it.

If the profits for his books went to his wife and her grandaughters I would feel entirely different.

And as for his friends who provided character statements for him in court, they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

I just re-checked the reviews on amazon; the ones which were there when this thread started over the weekend saying RT is a paedophile have been pulled.I am wondering if there is some legal process now going on.

I don't see why anyone would want to provide a character statement for a paedophile. Unless they were actively colluding .

That link in OP is very sad and very very wrong.

I too am very very upset at this artricle - I have a daughter who is nearly 5 - the thought of that is quite horrifying.

What a terrible terrible world we live in.

And, yes, of course all his books should be withdrawn and burnt - as should he too.

This is a really interesting discussion, thanks for starting it Quattro.

I don't believe in formal, offcicial censorship and though I can hardly bear to say this, would argue that his books should remain on sale.

But I TOTALLY agree with ethical shopping, in every sense, and that people will vote with their wallets if they are aware of the morals of the people/processes behind products, so this needs publicising really well so that people know to stay well clear of lining this man's pockets.

I'm glad I read the article and think we were warned enough

I'm glad I feel angry enough to not buy his books

And I'm glad that we live in a country without censorship so that I can pass this article to everyone I know and so that I can go into Hammonds/waterstones/borders and make a small fuss in the shop and raise awareness

I don't want anyone to stop stocking his books - I want everyone to know about this evil fucker

Thanks for posting this

I saw a piece in last Sunday's Observer about the children's writer Harry Horse having murdered his wife (who was a wheelchair user due to MS) and then killing himself. It was originally thought to have been a suicide pact. He murdered her quite brutally. I was very shocked. Should people stop reading his books to their children? I don't think so - nor would I argue for Roger Took's books to be pulled off shelves and pulped, or Eric Gill's sculptures to be destroyed. Wagner was undoubtedly anti-Semitic - I listen to his music, it is even sometimes played in Israel now. Some writers, artists, actors, composers do vile things; people can choose whether or not to read/look at/listen to their work. My godmother would never knowingly buy anything made in Japan because of how a relative had suffered as a POW ... I am in no way excusing or condoning Took's actions.

I just had to write down how I have felt all day about this. I can't get the image of a frightened 5 yr old urinating in the corner out of my head. It bothered me all day and evne when I was shopping for holiday goodies ( suposedly a good mood pastime I felt my throat get choked up). I can honestly say that nothing on MN has ever every moved or distressed me so much as that horrible article that the OP linked to. See its nearly midnight and I stil can't sleep for imagining all the other terrified little childrne there are out there in the world tonight..........

same here, lisa, but i don't think that's the article's fault.

i think it's there to get people properly angry about what these peados do.

and why there needs to be WAY more stringent penalties.

the writers of the article didn't make that scenario up, Richard Took did.

HE'S the guilty party here.

i have a 5-year-old daughter with dyspraxia and a 2.5-year-old daughter.

if getting people properly pissed off by exposing these paedos for who they are is what is needed to get some real change in how paedos are treated is what it takes, that's what it takes.

because paedos are scum. they really are. every last one of them.

But how can we actually do anything to help Expat?

I am usually all for news being in the publioc domain so that we are aware etc. I have no problme with atrocities being reported - war, rape etc. But this was just that bit too far. Words from that article are spinning around in my head and I still can't sleep. I just never imagined something that bad and direct went on. Biuying and killing a child. Abhorrnet. The man shoudl be killed.

When I got home tonight I couldn't find my nearly 5 yr old dd who wasn't in her bed. I had moments of blind panic as I searched her brothers and sisters beds where she somtimes wanders in the night. Couldn't find her anywyere at all and was about to start screaming in blind panic ( this was past 11.00pm and she'd been asleep at 7pm) when something tolde me to check au pair's room and there she was curled up in her bed!

I feel sick, having read that