A Silent Majority Speaks

Authors respond to the bullying scandal at the Society of Authors

SoC Chair Joanne Harris, a fashion-following bully

(Originally published on The Thing That Should Not Be Said)

When we posted our original Open Letter to the Society of Authors concerning free speech we were overwhelmed with responses. Many people chose to tell us why they had to remain anonymous, although some felt able to use their own names. With their permission we are publishing some of those repsonses here. We have also included members of the public who felt compelled to sign, appalled by what they could see was happening.

We salute the courage of all signatories and thank them for their support. It is a shocking state of affairs that so many feel unable to add their names openly for fear of losing their livelihoods, and it something we would like to see change. Courage calls to Courage.

Industry signatories

I would like to sign this letter – strictly anonymously – as I have a realistic fear I will be left without an agent and publisher if my name is public and am in dire straits on the financial front.

Novelist and non-fiction author, England

I've tweeted out my position under my own name & tweeted Joanne Harris - she blocked me.

I was online & reading JKR's tweet as one of the death threats came through & instantly felt sick with worry for her. When I saw Harris' crass poll, my sense was that it was trivialising the threats to JKR & trivialising the attack on Rushdie. And the subsequent attempts to backpedal & blame others were sickening. 

She is entitled to her opinion, but it's been clear for some time that this affects her ability to act for the SoA and for all authors equally & equitably. The fact she denies it makes it worse. 

Everything JKR does now, and it's become the same with Harris, gets conflated with their respective views on gender. This is such a shame but, with social media what it currently is, that's not going to change. Harris does not have the impartiality to be Chair of the SoA, and what's more, she's a bully. She needs to be replaced.

Crime author, England

I am an actor and an unpublished writer.

The sad truth is that my profession is so full of raging woke folks and I am a coward and do not want my name to be public. 

I am trying to get a memoir published right now and keeping a low profile is important to me.

Thank you for fighting the madness.

New York (Broadway) Actor

I am a many years’ member of the Society of Authors and a professional writer. I have long found Harris' views on gender objectionable and her tendency to speak as a SoA spokesperson online improper. Her hounding of GC writers drives me crazy.

I wish to add my signature to this letter.

My agent is currently renegotiating my contract with my publishers. To sign openly could be disastrous and would risk my relationship with my agent too if I am cast off by my publisher. I am not a well-off writer with no other source of income.

Saga Novelist, England

I am a freelance writer in Melbourne, Australia. I have been reviewing books and writing features for many years.

I am a strong supporter of freedom of speech, open debate and the safety and dignity of women and children in an increasingly misogynist world. As a sometime voter for Labor and The Greens, I now find myself politically homeless. 

I honour what you and other brave women and men are doing to try to push back against this hateful madness. 

Please feel free to add my name and fervent support to your letter.

Juliette Hughes

I signed because free speech, the right to express heterodox views and not be cancelled or victimised for doing so, is a cornerstone of all civilised, democratic, liberal societies. These days, too many people who believe themselves to be liberals seem to have forgotten this principle or never learnt it in the first place. Opposing views, however offensive some people might find any view they don't agree with, need to be heard in order that a true, educated understanding of the complexity of issues, as well as sensible compromises, can be achieved. All this is explained in 'On Liberty', John Stuart Mill's classic philosophical essay on the importance of freedom of thought and expression. Mill says in his 'Autobiography' that in the nineteenth century freedom of expression was opening up like never before. He would be shocked to see the way things are going today, not least, and most shamefully, in many of our so-called universities.

Dr Gary Cox

I am an author myself of non-fiction (six books to date) and I gave up my membership last year of the Society of Authors. I had become increasingly concerned with the behaviour of both Joanne Harris and Philip Pullman, neither of whom are supportive of gender-critical women authors nor, I feel, of middle-aged women like me. Their hubris and hypocrisy stinks. I applaud your courage and that of JK Rowling, Gillian Philip, Rachel Rooney and others. 

I'm sorry that I have to remain anonymous but I don't have the strength to fight the bullies and as a self-employed person the economy is way too fragile at the moment to risk being cancelled. Know though that I am with you in spirit. “Courage doesn’t always roar – sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow” Anon

Non-fiction author and former SoC member, England

I was a member until last year and resigned for precisely this reason. 

They gave me a grant in 2014 which funded my time writing my book, so it was not a decision taken lightly. 

Claudia Clare

Please add my name to the letter. Last year I cancelled my 40-year membership to the SoA because of Joanne Harris' behaviour. She must resign.
Jacqueline Chnéour
Freelance Literary Translator

I’m a poet, with one book to my name. I don’t care. Still a writer. The silencing of one author is the silencing of all of us.

Thank you very much for standing up to be counted

Poet, UK

I should like to add my name to the letter concerning the treatment of J.K. Rowling by the SoA executive. in the context of the recent attempted assassination of Salman Rushdie. 

I have been a member of the Society of Authors for some 25 years, though I have recently submitted my resignation on the basis of an unconnected but related issue concerning the drift of the SoA in recent times, concerning which I am currently in correspondence with senior management of the SoA. 

I am, in an odd way, gratified to find that the letter expresses several of the same general points that I have been making: essentially that the society has been taken over by Woke radicals who have no regard from the necessary diversity of the writing profession or the necessity for the society to stand up for the freedom of writers (not merely members) to articulate without fear of sanction whatever it is they seek to say. I have also raised the failure of the SoA to provide a platform or forum for the 'spirit of Orwell' in the context of recent encroachments on freedom across the formerly 'free' world, but that is a somewhat broader question. 

Although I have sympathy for Joanne Harris in her personal situation, I do not think it right that she should use her position in the SoA to strike blows on behalf of what is, without doubt, an extremely dangerous and lawless ideology, and in a manner that risks unsettling the general air of openness required by a writers' body like the SoA.  

John Waters

‘This is an issue of huge significance - children in particular, need to be taught ‘how to think’, not ‘what to think’, and free speech is of fundamental importance in this. It must be protected, as must the authors who promote it’

Ian C. Court

As a gender critical feminist, I'm being targeted by trans activists and getting canceled by editors, other writers and journalist here since 2019.

Even in South Korea, most of academia and feminism activists are passionate believers of the church of gender identity ideology. 

Terf hunt is sacred. Freedom of speech is not allowed to GC people.

However, so many young Korean women support JKR and watch what's happening in Western countires now.

Sending my name and full support.

Jina Kim, South Korea

My reasons for signing the Open letter

The way I see it, JK Rowling, expressed her support for Salman Rushdie while he was lying critically ill. In response, the chair of the SoA tweeted a poll to assess the extent to which writers have been subjected to death threats. She removed it very soon afterwards, as she rightly recognised its inappropriate tone. But then, she tweeted another poll and for me, that was where the glass overspilt. It showed a serious lack of judgment. What was its purpose? To show that only a small number of writers have received such threats? Even a threat to a single writer is one too many.

I also regretted the way in which a matter concerning the attempted murder of a writer as a result of something he had written was overshadowed by a disagreement over transgender issues, a wholly different topic. While I do not take sides in this very unhelpful spat, I can see that in a culture that has been marked by centuries of violence against women, some women may feel that gender self-definition may create uncomfortable and potentially dangerous situations. That is why I think JK Rowling should have the right to express her views in what is a sensitive and difficult debate.

The cancellations that she, and many other writers, have endured for speaking out are unacceptable. The Society of Authors should have made a statement on that. I understand that, during the past two years, demands to make a public statement condemning cancellations have been repeatedly raised in the Management committee but, under the chair of Joanne Harris, they have been rejected. That is a sad omission on the part of a union that should be supporting writers, regardless of their views in this or any other area of legitimate debate.

However, none of that is directly relevant to the current argument. But, as chair of the Management Committee of the SoA, Joanne Harris cannot claim that tweeting from her personal account should be separated from her official position. I suspect her lack of judgement and failure to support writers who have been cancelled due to their views on transgender, is part of her personal criticism of their position. She is certainly entitled to her own views, but she has to be aware that, while she remains chair, any public statements will be linked to the SoA.

Joanne Harris has also written a blog in which she reiterates her position, and I cannot understand that she has not realised how damaging her words are to her and to the Society of Authors.

Novelist, UK

The position of chair of the Society of Authors should be regarded as an honour, as such, the chair should be impartial and most certainly should not joke and resort to childish "one upmanship" and ridiculous poll posting on twitter regarding an assassination attempt on a member which has resulted in serious injury. The failed attempt at humour denigrates not only the position of chair, but the Society itself. 

Free speech is the cornerstone of a free society. A prize to be protected from those who would seek to ban the privilege through violent measures as the assailant of Salmon Rushdie attempted to do. Any author who exercises their right to speak out on a matter they believe worthy of debate, including JK Rowling and Salmon Rushdie deserves the full support of the Society of Authors and especially the chair on the basis of: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Whether Evelyn Beatrice Hall or Voltaire said it, the words have never been more relevant than they are today.
For the first time since I joined the Society in 1989, I'm actually ashamed to say I'm a member but I trust and hope that the common sense of the majority of members will prevail.

It also says a great deal about the present climate of the UK that you feel you have to offer anonymity to members who wish to express their feelings on this matter. I understand why you are doing it. My mother was born in Germany in 1926 and didn't leave until 1947.

Thank you for leading the fight back.

Karen Watkins/Catrin Collier

I was banned from Twitter a couple of years ago for speaking in support of J K Rowling in her principled stand against TRA-inspired misogyny and homophobia; I’ve been an out and proud TERF ever since. I wrote to the SoA, of which I am a card-carrying member, to request a formal statement of support for Rowling.  It is my belief that she is this era’s Salman Rushdie, and as such a vital rallying point for the defence of freedom of expression for all writers and artists everywhere in what have become very dangerous times.  I further believe she is being failed by the left-liberal establishment in much the same way as Rushdie was failed with lukewarm and patchy solidarity at the time of the Satanic Verses debacle.

My request to the SoA for this vital show of solidarity was rebuffed in much the same way I now understand others’ similar requests were also treated.  There is clearly something very wrong at the heart of the organisation, something that could reasonably be called ideological capture, and from where I’m standing it looks very ugly indeed.

Richard Morgan

Thank you so much for voicing in such clear, rational, and necessarily strong terms our concerns as authors. The Society of Authors should be supporting authors who are threatened for exercising their right to free speech. I was deeply offended and profoundly disturbed by Joanne Harris's original and extremely bizarre poll -- and the second was no better, Did she really mean to dismiss and ridicule the death threat against Ms Rowling? And can the SoA truly believe that their own belated and frankly mendacious tweet was an adequate response?

Since the Chair of the SoA clearly believes that her own ideology is the only valid one, and anyone who disagrees with her can go cry in their coffee if they're trolled or threatened for giving voice to their opinions, then she is the wrong person for the job.

I am a member of the association, and do not want to resign from it because one person should not be allowed to effectively scrub out anyone who disagrees with her very narrow and destructive views. The association has survived many storms, and I hope it is strong enough to survive Joanne Harris. I was cheered by the court rulings in the Forstater and Bailey cases and I sincerely hope that the SoA does change its stance on gender-critical issues. 

Please could you add me anonymously as a signatory? Having reviewed contractual clauses which fellow authors have been forced to sign and which could result in the termination of publishing contracts (with damages) if the publisher deems them to have expressed 'objectionable' views, I would fear for my future career if I were to sign publically.

Crime writer, UK

I am utterly fed up with this nonsense, that’s it in a nutshell. After a lifetime, including years in the NHS, I have never felt or shown anything but acceptance and support towards people who felt they were in the wrong bodies, and sympathy because I knew the hard road they had to negotiate. And now, because I know and understand the science, I am some kind of monster. It is not possible to change sex, it is, as many experts have stated, in every cell of the body – this is not  “opinion” it is fact and will not change because trans activists simply do not want to believe it and use violence against those who cannot and do not agree with them. As one feminist guru (Germaine Greer) said some years ago, cutting off your willie and putting on a dress does not make you a woman, there’s considerably more to being female than that. I deeply resent women being devalued like this, the insistence that our views are worth less than those of someone who feels they want to be a woman, and those feelings must come before the concerns of biological women. I also resent the intimidation and violence against those who do not agree, tactics that have turned supporters into detractors. The time is right to speak out instead of hoping common sense will prevail by magic. As far as I’m concerned all power, all support to JKR!

Meg Henderson

I'd like to sign the Open Letter to the SOA regarding Joanne Harris's appalling attempt at 'gathering a straw poll' on writers receiving death threats. I'm just horrified that she could be so flippant about an attempt on someone's life, so I want to sign.

I've been a member of the SOA for 20 years and was at one time on the Scottish Committee.

Sheila Templeton

Adding my name is intended as a very small mark of respect to JK Rowling and others who have the courage of their convictions.

Miranda Fowden

I signed the letter because I am an anti-authoritarian. I signed the letter because I am an Irish woman. I signed the letter because I am an Irish writer. In Ireland, we have a long and sorrowful history of having faith-based beliefs embedded in every facet of society. And our writers paid dearly for that. Their work was banned and they were exiled. We have shaken off those authoritarians, happily. But authoritarianism comes in many forms. I have stood on many an Irish street where I and others have been threatened with violence and death by far-right and fascist activists. And now I see other, just as chilling forms of authoritarianism arising. I noted how many Irish men and women have signed this letter. That is no surprise.

I am old enough to remember the shock that reverberated around the world when Salman Rushdie’s life was first threatened. And I was horrified to see that someone tried to make good on those threats more recently. Equally, I watched in horror a couple of years ago as rape and death threats aimed at JK Rowling piled up, many of them involving death by choking on male genitalia. And those were just the public ones. They just kept coming – a barrage of hate-filled male abuse directed at a woman because of something she wrote. A police investigation is said to be underway into a recent alleged threat by an Irish man against JK Rowling which took the form of a tweet which publicly displayed Rowling’s family’s home address, a picture of a pipe bomb and a photo of a bomb-making handbook. My countrymen covering themselves in glory once more. In the intervening two years since this disgusting abuse of the writer began, there has been no statement of support for her, no denouncement of the rape and death threats against her from the Society of Authors.

Indeed, after JK Rowling expressed sympathy for Salman Rushdie in the aftermath of his attempted murder, she received another two death threats. And still, there was nothing forthcoming from the Society of Authors—effectively, the union for writers in the UK. Not only that but the chairperson of the Society of Authors proceeded to share a poll on social media that had a sneering tone that belittled the situation of both Salman Rushdie and JK Rowling. As a lifelong liberal leftist, I always imagined that the very least you could expect from your union was that it would publicly support you were you receiving multiple public death and rape threats and that your union would publicly denounce those threats.

We are all entitled to hold faith-based beliefs as long as those beliefs do not lead us to harm others. If a writer who holds solid faith-based beliefs that I do not share, were to be repeatedly threatened with death and sexual assault, I would be equally appalled if the writer’s union did not come out strongly in support of that writer.  And I would sign this self-same letter in support of that writer and in complaint against their union and its chairperson. Freedom of belief is a value we should hold dear. No one knows this better than the Irish.

Irish author

It is difficult to be confident in an organisation whose staff and some committee members have publicly called for curbs on free speech against other writers; signing Open Letters against institutions or individuals defending free speech; opposing writers writing eloquently about the undeniably complex and fraught area of gender identity...But it is not just on that issue that the problem rears its head. Conformity and orthodoxy seem to be the standard now. It is leading to a boring, joyless sector that celebrates only those who toe the line, and sidelines anyone who puts even a toe out of line. It is like a high school. The problem is not just the Chair, but the atmosphere across our sector, in so many institutions, which organisations like the SoA are doing nothing to address. Indeed, they foster it and bolster it.

Poet, Scotland

If you are adding names to the open letter regarding Joanne Harris, I'm happy to add mine.

At a time when Salman Rushdie had been violently attacked and lay in hospital, and fellow author JK Rowling had received serious death threats for sending her best wishes to him, the Chair of the Society of Authors should have been expressing unity amongst writers and defiance against those who seek to destroy free speech.

Instead, Joanne Harris thought it appropriate to make light of such death threats, appearing to publicly mock fellow author JK Rowling with a trivial twitter poll. Hardly the message a representative of a society claiming to support authors and uphold free speech should be making, especially as we were awaiting news on Mr Rushdie's life-threatening injuries.

At best, she made a serious error of judgement. At worst, she allowed her personal prejudice towards JK Rowling to colour her public response. She has damaged her own reputation and the Society's if she stays as Chair.

Nikki Laing

Please add my name. Thank you so much for writing this. It is absolutely essential to take a stand on this shocking situation. I cancelled my membership with the SOA last year but am an author.

Crime Writer, UK

It’s women like you that keep women like me writing. I know I

Won’t get published at present no matter how good my novel is but with women fighting it might happen in the future. So thank you xxx

Jean Hatchet

I am a long-standing member of the Society of Authors. I would like my pseudonym added to the list in support of JK Rowling. I am shocked and disappointed at the lack of support from Joanne Harris for women authors who dare to challenge trans bigotry and gender bullying.

It is so important to protect writers at a time when freedom of speech is under threat - not only from political regimes that suppress human rights and legitimate challenges to authority - but also from trans supporters who use threats and aggression to attack scientifically accurate, sensitively and carefully expressed views supporting sex- based rights.

Thoughtful Writer

Given the views of the current Management Committee, the SoA cannot claim to be a supporter of free speech. More specifically, those views mean that the SoA will not now guarantee its support for its members when they express views with which they disagree. Let’s not complicate this issue. Either you are a supporter of free speech or you are not. It’s binary. It’s not a spectrum. A writer must be able to write ANYTHING they like. If what they write is libellous, then the recipient has recourse to the rule of law. Other than that, there cannot be restrictions. If a writer self-censors, as so many now feel they must, they are not a true writer, just somebody in the grip of groupthink.

Brendan Bruce

Non industry

I would like to add my name to this letter. It's extremely important for everyone to get behind JK Rowling and other authors who have been attacked, threatened and bullied, just because they exercise their right to free speech. Free speech is for everyone, not just for those whose views are "correct". And I utterly condemn death threats, or threats of any violence, against any author. The current chair of the society has not only failed in her duty of care, but actively ignored her duties. Not good enough.

James Casserly

I don't work in the publishing industry, but could you add my name to the above please. I support the free speech of all authors and deplore the lack of condemnation over JKR’s death threats etc.

Lyn Bambury

I would like to add my support to your letter, I am not an author, I am an Irish woman who spends a lot of time campaigning to challenge gender ideology here in Ireland (falling on deaf ears currently)

The best of luck with it and with the movement in general, I wish we had more in Ireland speaking up like the U.K.,

Sarah Holmes (NI)

I am not a writer or author. 

I am a physiotherapist in Scotland and feel strongly about this. 

Tracey Shaw

Could I please add my name to the open letter to the Society of Authors. I am not in the book business although I trained in children's book illustration. I am the mother of two (now adult) daughters and a granddaughter. I support J K Rowling and strongly defend the right of women to exist and to maintain their female boundaries.

Christine, Mother of Daughters

As a non-publishing industry member of the public, who believes both in decency and free speech, I would like to add my anonymised name to the open letter re Joanne Harris.

Children’s Services Officer (Special Educational Needs & Disabilities), England

I am appalled at the treatment of people in the literary sector who stand against the pernicious gender ideology.

Lynn Thomason, Adult Human Female

Outraged about the Gender cult that is taking the world by storm.

I have a gay son and 2 daughters and I don’t want their identities to be cancelled by pseudo religious clap trap.

Peter Lord, NZ

I would like to add my name to the open letter to the Society of Authors re Joanne Harris. 

To have someone who is a prominent member of a society who should have an unbiased thoughts on any authors target other authors by intimating they might have either lied or exaggerated the threats they have had and are still getting as we speak. 

It seems that the Society of Authors have fallen for the trans ideology which is intent on destroying free speech and expression. 

I am not an author myself.  But I am an avid reader. The books I read take me away from the life I live. It is an escape from the autistic mind when reading.  To try and clip the wings of these wordsmiths is an affront to freedom of speech and expression. 

I apologize for my long email! But when one feels strongly about this, one does tend to get carried away. 

Thank you for this. And I hope you will add my name to this open letter. 

Toni Roche-Simmons

Not part of any related industry, just an ordinary punter and avid reader quietly appalled at way women with opinions are being treated, and the way apparently intelligent people are acquiescing to a movement clearing acting in the interests of sexually depraved men.

Please add my name to whatever list you want.

Paul Black

I would like to add my name to the open letter addressed to The Society of Authors. 

I thought Joanne Harris's tweets were pretty appalling considering Salman Rushdie had been stabbed with life altering consequences and JK Rowling has received, violent rape and death threats. The Society of Authors should be issuing strong and specific support for its members

Sarah Bartlett, Health professional 

I am not a writer. I am a supporter of free speech and believe that Joanne Harris should resign from her post. More than being asleep at the wheel, she has been obstructive at the wheel. Not ok!

Thank you

Alice Hartley