Edinburgh International Book Festival has not invited authors of gender critical books

[IwantToRetire]

Scotland’s biggest book festival has provoked fury after claiming the authors of best selling gender critical books have not been invited to take part because the issue is too divisive.

Edinburgh International Book Festival Chief Executive Jenny Niven told a complainer: 'We do not want to be in a position that we are creating events for spectacle or sport, or raising specific people’s identity as a subject of debate.'

The event, part funded by public cash, features 700 authors from 35 different countries across the world but has been criticised for ignoring gender critical voices in the books and speakers it is promoting.

Full article https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14965579/Book-festival-boss-criticised-lack-invite-authors-gender-critical-books.html

See also https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14965583/JENNY-LINDSAY-touch-literary-world-long-ludicrously-one-sided-gender-debate.html

The bloke on the left is not gender critical.

Read the story.

Then you will see why the usual suspects are shown.

Seriously.

Most newspapers, including the DM go for images they think will get attention.

That's the whole point of providing a link is to provide access to the full story.

So many first comments on threads are only about the extracts in the OP which are never ever the whole story.

This shouldn't need to be said!

Sigh- why am I not surprised by these cowards?

Is this not blatant discrimination against authors with GC “beliefs”.

"One woman, who bought almost £300 of tickets, questioned why the EIBF had ignored one of Scotland’s most significant books from last year, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, but was platforming queer and trans writers and speakers."

Yep, they've cancelled GC writers. I hope the women above ask's for her £300 back.

And there goes free speech ...........

Well yes, but also absolute cowardice because they are saying they dont want contraversy. ie the bullies win.

If the world in the past had been made up of people like this, we would never have discussed and changed attitudes towards, slavery, women's rights, etc., etc..

And worse still is all those who will attend, knowing they are not hearing all voices, but happy to be part of an elite, intellectual gathering.

Almost wish someone would set up and alternative Book Festival. But as usual women are left out and excluded and the majority dont care.

I have tickets for Chimananda Ngozi Adichie. Not very interested in anyone else.

I don't see how the Book Festival can invite Nicola Sturgeon to promote her "warm and revealing memoir" and then claim not to be "controversial".

I'm also going to see Chimamanda. Interesting that last time she was here she was interviewed by......Nicola Sturgeon

I’d have bought tickets to see these authors. I have not bought any tickets to see Harry Josephine Giles who recently demanded “wombs and titties” wven
thougb he has six events on. I hope he goes hoarse.

It's been gone awhile in Scotland.

It's a disgrace and the reason I stopped going a few years back.

That and a situation with a TiM I witnessed at the festival. But anyway Edinburgh generally is v v captured; there's trans flags quite prominently displayed around various restaurants and shops etc. I see them in Glasgow city centre as well to be fair (Shelter being one), but particularly in merchant city. I don't feel that's as big a deal as that's the gay part of the city so it's not unexpected for lots of pride and trans flags to be there. I was upset though they stickered the David statue near the chambers with a trans sticker (just up from SinglEnd cafe) and it won't be easy for the council to peel off.

Anyway I'm barely in Edinburgh these days, even though I used to love it. I just expected more of the city that launched the enlightenment. But hey ho.

I’m loving that on this thread I have adverts for The Making of Harry Potter!😂 ❤️JKR

Great in-depth piece by Jenny Lindsay on this.

https://jennylindsaywriter.substack.com/p/broken-trust-and-double-standards?r=8zt2l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

This was briefly covered on Radio 4 Front Row just now.

Ooh - what did they say?

Samira Ahmed was really good and got the interviewee to agree that hearing a broad range of voices was good and then asked something like "so then why aren't you inviting the (bestselling) women who wouldn't wheesht when you have a load of trans writers?".
She pushed back quite a bit and the festival director was pretty weak in her responses.
She's gained a new fan here anyway.
Also sensible discussion about Peter Sellers playing what would now be questionable roles earlier in the programme.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002gzvf
about 24 mins in

If the SnP and greens get ousted at the next election it would greatly help (though I’m not holding my breath).

Maybe it's just that their books aren't actually that good? Maybe it's that there were over 700 other authors, trans or otherwise, that wrote better books more worthy of a place on the bill. Maybe it's that just because they wrote a book it doesn't automatically mean they should get a slot at the book festival. Maybe it's that these 'authors' didn't go through the proper channels and pitch an event like pretty much every other author/author's agent does to be considered for the programme and just assumed they'd be asked. Maybe it's that outwith this little echo chamber of privileged women like yourselves, the majority of book festival goers don't really care about what it is these books have to say and would much prefer to spend their money on more interesting and better writers. Just a thought.

Nah. As the quote in the first post makes clear, GC authors have been excluded specifically for their feminist views.

We are talking about bestselling books.

I actually raised a number of points as to why they were maybe not included in the bill and, as ever, you're not able to answer to any of them because, unlike your arguments, there are logical reasons as to why, not just GC authors but authors in general are not on the bill. I repeat, authors are not necessarily invited to book festivals, the authors themselves or their agents have to pitch an event to the programming team. And as to the first quote - that's not what is being said. It's talks about not wanting to book something purely based on it's clickbait potential that doesn't forward the discussion. If the books had more substance beyond complaining about being cancelled and fuelling hateful rhetoric, then they might have been in with a chance. Events covering other subjects that are considered divisive including the continuing situation in Palestine and Colonialism in Scotland were all present on the book festival bill. So no, it's not just that GC writers are divisive, it's that these books are not saying anything new or bring anything interesting to the table beyond 'woe is me that no one cares about what I have to say'.

I'm also interested to know where you found the figures for these books to be recognised as best sellers? Although, even if they are, again it doesn't automatically mean they should be on a book festival bill.

The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht debuted at number 3 on The Sunday Times list of bestselling general hardbacks.

Wikipedia, second google result.

Amazon provides lists on its best sellers. The first seven spots in the Amazon Chart for the week of 17 August 2025 listing "the most read (fiction) books of the week", are taken by Harry Potter and JK Rowling. (I see that the boycott is going well...)

If we take The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht (first published 30 May 2024), Amazon says it is the current the number 1 best seller in gender studies (Kindle); at number 2 in family and health law (Kindle); and at number 3 in law (Books).