Rival Literary Union Attracts Members After Society of Authors Accused of Neglecting Free Speech Rights

A general view of a collection of Penguin books on display. Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images

A new rival literary union is hoping to attract members from the UK’s Society of Authors, after the latter was criticised for not defending women authors who were attacked for being critical of gender ideology.

Writers are reportedly leaving the Society of Authors (SoA) for a rival union after several years marked by authors getting cancelled for having gender-critical views.

The Free Speech Union, set up by the British journalist Toby Young in 2020, now has a new provision to oversee its offering for authors called the Writers’ Advisory Council.

Some of the authors include Helen Joyce, Julie Bindel, Anna Pasternak, Andrew Roberts, and Lionel Shriver; as well as comedians Andrew Doyle and Jack Dee.

Attracting Refugees

“I think writers need a body that’s going to stand up for their right to free speech and freedom of expression,” Young told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Hopefully, if the FSU does start to attract refugees from the SoA in large numbers, the SoA will start defending the speech rights of all its members and not just those who have the ‘correct’ opinions. Too many trade unions are neglecting the speech rights of their members who have the ‘wrong’ views and providing them with a bit of competition is a good way to correct that,” he said.

Toby Young attends the Love At First Sight reception and auction at Bonhams in London on Jan. 23, 2006. Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Founded in 1884, the UK’s largest writers’ union the Society of Authors has more than 11,500 writers, illustrators, and literary translators on its books.

Though it has in the past year been embroiled in free speech rows, one involving JK Rowling and Chocolat author and SoA chair Joanne Harris.

In August, after Rowling received an online threat in response to her tweet showing support for Sir Salman Rushdie after he was stabbed, Harris, who is an advocate for transgender individuals, published a now-deleted poll on Twitter, which said “Fellow-authors have you ever received a death threat (credible or otherwise).”

The options were: “Yes,“ “Hell, yes,” “No, never,” and “Show me, dammit.”

Feeling Betrayed

In a statement to The Times Of London at the time, Rowling said that “Harris has consistently failed to criticise tactics designed to silence and intimidate women who disagree with her personal position on gender identity ideology and has said publicly, ‘Cancel isn’t a dirty word. We habitually cancel things we no longer want.

“I find it impossible to square the society’s stated position on freedom of speech with Harris’s public statements over the past two years and stand in solidarity with all female writers in the UK who currently feel betrayed by their professional body and its leader,” she added.

Writer J.K. Rowling poses for the media at the world premiere of the film "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" in Paris on Nov. 8, 2018.Christophe Ena/AP Photo

Harris refuted the claims and said that she is “wholly against threats of any kind, to anyone, regardless of their politics, opinions or views. That includes JK Rowling, or anyone whose opinions I might sometimes disagree with.”

“Some of you may have noticed the volume of harassment I get on a regular basis from certain gender-critical people,” she said.

Though other members have also made claims it did not receive support from the union.

Now part of the FSU Writers’ Advisory Council, children’s poet Rachel Rooney found herself considering quitting children’s publishing after being targeted by transgender activists as well as authors in 2020.

This was after she wrote a book called “My Body is Me!” to help children accept and understand their bodies and raised concerns about the teaching of gender ideology to children on social media.

The book says: “You’re born in your body, you don’t have a spare, so love it, hug it, treat it with care.”

At the time, Rooney claimed the SoA “didn’t do anything to help me” and added that it “really needs to draw up some new guidelines for online behaviour.”

The SoA says it “cannot and does not intervene in disputes between authors.”

In November a group of 10 authors including the feminist writer Julie Bindel proposed a resolution to oust Harris but this was voted down.

Joanne Harris holding her MBE for services to literature after it was presented to her by Queen Elizabeth II at an Investiture Ceremony at Buckingham Palace in London on Oct. 10, 2013. John Stillwell - WPA Pool/ Getty Images

Joanne Harris, chair of the Management Committee of the SoA, told The Epoch Times by email that she was “not aware at this point of anyone actually leaving the SoA in favour of the Free Speech Union—they aren’t competing organizations, and offer very different services to authors.

“Many people are members of both, just as many SoA members also join Index on Censorship, PEN, and other freedom of speech organisations,” she added.

“The SoA has a larger membership than ever before, with a broad umbrella of views, and deals with them impartially. The SoA is committed to working for the rights of all types of writers, illustrators, and literary translators, at all stages of their careers. Everything the SoA undertakes is for the sole aim of improving the lives and conditions of all authors, no matter their status or personal views.

“I'd like to reassure anyone concerned that my political views do not affect SoA policy, or the way in which gender critical writers are welcomed,” said Harris.

Opposition to the Orthodoxy

Philip Kiszely, a lecturer in Performance and Cultural Histories at the University of Leeds, told The Epoch Times that it “really isn’t surprising that authors are flocking to the Free Speech Union.”

“Like television, film and theatre, publishing is a zero-tolerance sector in which any challenge to genderism results in vilification. And the logical extension to that, of course, is cancellation,” he added.

Kiszely is also a senior fellow at the New Culture Forum (NCF) think tank and media outlet, which was set up to challenge “the cultural orthodoxies dominant in the media, academia, education, and British culture in its widest sense.

“Any opposition to the orthodoxy is seen to be evil,” said Kiszely.

“That women tend to be the victims of the new bigotry makes no difference whatsoever. In fact, it’s very instructive. Publishing finds itself in a similar position to that of the institutions: it is on the receiving end of a dual assault from external actors and internal lobbyists. And like the institutions, its response is cowardly,” he added.

Kiszely said that “any author worth the name should be appalled at this situation” and yet “many support it wholeheartedly.”

“It is only true heroes, JK Rowling and Lionel Shriver for example, who push back with real force. It is no coincidence that they also tend to be the better writers,” he added.

SoA Chief Executive Nicola Solomon told The Epoch Times by email that she believes the “FSU is not a ‘rival union’ to the SoA.”

“It is not a trade union or even a writers’ organisation. It is a specific single issue organisation concerned with freedom of expression,” she added.

Solomon said that this is very different from the aims of the SoA, whose mission is “to empower professional authors and their estates with knowledge, support, and community, and to lobby industry and government for an environment that helps sustain and nurture the careers of creators and their work.”

She said that “although the FSU has now set up its Writers’ Advisory Council, this does not seem to provide the same scope of advice and support to authors that our own advice team does.”

“We will continue to do this work while continuing to uphold members’ right to freedom of expression whoever they are,” added Solomon.