Prue Leith abandons her latest book in battle with ‘ridiculous’ PC brigade after she was left at loggerheads with her publisher
- Prue Leith opens up about row over what she could include in her new book
- The Great British Bake Off judge says she has a half-written novel she abandoned
- Miss Leith also said she believes she is now too old to take on another trilogy
Prue Leith says she’s been forced to give up on an upcoming work of fiction because of a political correctness row
Prue Leith says she’s been forced to give up on an upcoming work of fiction because of a political correctness row.
The Great British Bake Off judge voiced her frustration after she was left at loggerheads with her publisher over what she could and could not include in the novel, as she claimed it is a ‘difficult’ time to be a writer.
Speaking at the online Lockdown LitFest, the 80-year-old said: ‘I have a half-written novel which I abandoned because I slightly fell out with the publisher, because they kept wanting to tell me what was politically correct.’
Miss Leith added: ‘It’s quite difficult for writers at the moment. There’s such a lot of things you can’t say and what your characters can’t say. Which is ridiculous – this is fiction.
‘If I want to write about some prejudiced, white, middle-class male who is a racist… I should be allowed to do that.’
Miss Leith also said she believes she is now too old to take on another trilogy as she ‘could not guarantee to finish it’.
Last year she finished her trilogy about two families living in the Cotswolds.
She penned her first novel, Leaving Patrick, in 1999. In 2012 she published her memoir, Relish. She has also written a wealth of cookery books.
Her most recent, The Vegetarian Kitchen, was published in February.
In August she condemned ‘crazy’ political correctness’ and said pandering to it will make books ‘boring’.
‘I think sometimes political correctness is crazy and goes too far,’ she told The Sun.
‘I’m all for something sensible and you should not be insulting.
‘Children’s writers have to go through a fantastical process of checking they don’t offend anybody.
‘If you write a book that never offends anyone it will be a very boring book.’
Her latest comments come days after Booker Prize-winning author Salman Rushdie voiced his fears for literature in an age of ‘cancel culture’ and shunned the idea that writers should only write about their own experiences.
He told Times Radio: ‘If you can only write about a gay character if you’re gay or you can only write about a straight character if you’re straight very rapidly the form of literature becaomes difficult to continue with. That doesn’t mean you should get away with doing that poorly. Write what you know but only write what you know if what you know is really interesting.’
The Great British Bake Off judge voiced her frustration after she was left at loggerheads with her publisher over what she could and could not include in the novel, as she claimed it is a ‘difficult’ time to be a writer.