Joanne Harris is not fit to be Chair of the Society of Authors
She is a dishonest ideologue who neither stands up for her authors nor freedom of speech
From the latest Private Eye.
Some writers were alarmed to read in the last Eye that the society of authors Management Committee, which is chaired by Joanne (Chocolat) Harris, had decided to society's president, Sir Philip Pullman, must attend unconscious bias training following complaints about his comments on Twitter.
When novelist Amanda Craig expressed concern about the report, Harris tweeted at her “You seem very keen to believe anonymous gossip, Amanda, and to spread it”. Thriller writer Charles Cumming asked, “Is any part of the Private Eye story true?” Miss Chocolat’s denial was unequivocal: “It's rubbish”.
Fact to remember, Joanne Harris is a writer of fiction. Her management committee did indeed discuss complaints against Pullman in a Zoom meeting on Ninth of September and ordered him to undergo urgent reeducation as the first stage of his rehabilitation, as we reported. Despite chairing the Society of Authors, Harris often blocks members who question her on Twitter. These include children's fantasy author, Gillian Phillip, a former SLA committee member, who was summarily fired by her publisher on June 2020 for tweeting the hashtag, #IStandWithJKRowling. Last week, Philip revealed in the express that she had since been obliged to retrain as a HGV driver to earn a living, prompting other writers on Twitter to wonder why the SFA hadn't spoken up for a member who lost her livelihood because she defended Rowling. Harris snapped back, “the Society of authors is there to defend author's contractual rights, not their personal opinions”.
Philip then noted however that the Where We Stand section of the SOA’s own website goes far beyond contracts.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and a central tenet of an author's work and livelihood” it declares “We work to protect free speech, and to create an environment where all are afforded an equal voice. We oppose in the strongest terms any attempt to stifle or control the author's voice, whether by censorship, imprisonment, execution, hate speech or trolling.”
How did the SFA react to having its commitment to free speech quoted? Gillian Philip received a notification forthwith: “Society of authors blocked you, you are blocked from following Society of authors and viewing Society of authors tweets.”
As she wrote last week discussing her new career as a trucker, “I can tell you from experience that the haulage industry is far more supportive and inclusive, and a lot less misogynistic than the world of children’s writing”. She has now let her SOA membership lapse.
(Update: It was Working Partners who officially fired Gillian, but she tells me it was on the orders of Harper Collins US).
What’s happened to Gillian takes my breath away. I know that isn’t the main point of this update but I didn’t know the full details before, and didn’t realise she’d also lost her husband while dealing with all this. Actually makes me feel emotional and I don’t even know the woman.
I’ve been a SoA member in the past and I know they very badly needed younger members (which I was at that time). I guess they think this kind of fuckwittery is the way to stay relevant.
It’s just so, SO “burn the witch”, isn’t it. Good wishes to you, Gillian, if you see this.
Last month, I didn't renew my 40-year-old membership to the SoA because Joanne Harris signed that infamous letter last year in support of trans ideology (in response to a letter that had been in support of JK Rowling). I had complained about it at the time and been told that she'd done so in her own name. I didn't buy it. The SoA is supposed to be a 'trade union' fighting for *all* writers. The Chair shouldn't be partisan.
I had a short exchange with Joanne Harris recently on Twitter. She was incredibly disingenuous.