The BBC has compiled a Platinum Jubilee reading list, selecting one book for each year of the Queen’s reign, but it is more notable for the books it has left out than included. The Big Jubilee Read is intended to celebrate great books from across the Commonwealth, and includes many white British authors as well as Indian, African and African-Caribbean writers. Yet it doesn’t include Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or James Bond. MailOnline has more.
Some of Britain’s greatest authors have been snubbed by the BBC as both J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings have been left out of the BBC’s list of books from the Queen’s 70-year reign.
The BBC’s Big Jubilee Read has been compiled following a five-month search that has involved librarians from towns and villages across the UK – along with readers in 54 countries.
It aims to offer 70 pieces of “brilliant, beautiful and thrilling writing” produced by authors from all over the Commonwealth over the last 70 years, 14 of whom are from the UK.
Yet two of Britain’s most prestigious novelists have been omitted from the list, the Times reports.
JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, almost certainly the U.K.’s largest literary export over the period, has been left out alongside J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – beloved since its publication in 1954..
Both franchises were hugely popular globally, both in terms of the original books and subsequent films.
It comes as British megastar author Rowling, 56, has faced accusations of transphobia after she mocked an online article in June 2020 for using the phrase “people who menstruate” instead of “women”.
She later defended herself against the claims in a passionate essay but has been hounded online by some members of the trans community ever since.
An initial long list of 153 books had to be cut down by more than half to 70 – one for each year of the monarch’s reign.
Susheila Nasta, emeritus professor of modern literature at Queen Mary and Westfield University, said there was a “big discussion over about J.K. Rowling” before the list was completed.
She added: “She was on the long-list with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
“A space was cleared for someone equally as good but whose work was not as well known. There were some very tricky decisions.”
But the list, to be published in full on Monday, does feature other books that have later been turned into popular television series or films.
Included are Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi.
The list hasn’t just omitted J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkien from the list. Also overlooked are any books by Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, V.S. Pritchett, Ian Fleming, Len Deighton, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, William Boyd, Kingsley Amis and Martin Amis, to name just a few.
Here is the list of the greatest books published by authors from across the Commonwealth published in the past 70 years, according to the BBC. I have to confess, the only I’ve read is Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy. How about you?
1952-1961
The Palm-Wine Drinkard – Amos Tutuola (1952, Nigeria)
The Hills Were Joyful Together – Roger Mais (1953, Jamaica)
In the Castle of My Skin – George Lamming (1953, Barbados)
My Bones and My Flute – Edgar Mittelholzer (1955, Guyana)
The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon (1956, Trinidad and Tobago/England)
The Guide – R. K. Narayan (1958, India)
To Sir, With Love – E. R. Braithwaite (1959, Guyana)
One Moonlit Night – Caradog Prichard (1961, Wales)
A House for Mr Biswas – VS Naipaul (1961, Trinidad and Tobago/England)
Sunlight on a Broken Column – Attia Hosain (1961, India)
1962-1971
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (1962, England)
The Interrogation – J.M.G. Le Clézio (1963, France/Mauritius)
The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark (1963, Scotland)
Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe (1964, Nigeria)
Death of a Naturalist – Seamus Heaney (1966, Northern Ireland)
Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys (1966, Dominica/Wales)
A Grain of Wheat – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1967, Kenya)
Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay (1967, Australia)
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born – Ayi Kwei Armah (1968, Ghana)
When Rain Clouds Gather – Bessie Head (1968, Botswana/South Africa)
1972-1981
The Nowhere Man – Kamala Markandaya (1972, India)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré (1974, England)
The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough (1977, Australia)
The Crow Eaters – Bapsi Sidhwa (1978, Pakistan)
The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch (1978, England)
Who Do You think You Are? – Alice Munro (1978, Canada)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (1979, England)
Tsotsi – Athol Fugard (1980, South Africa)
Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai (1980, India)
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie (1981, England/India)
1982-1991
Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally (1982, Australia)
Beka Lamb – Zee Edgell (1982, Belize)
The Bone People – Keri Hulme (1984, New Zealand)
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1985, Canada)
Summer Lightning – Olive Senior (1986, Jamaica)
The Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera (1987, New Zealand)
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (1989, England)
Omeros – Derek Walcott (1990, Saint Lucia)
The Adoption Papers – Jackie Kay (1991, Scotland)
Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (1991, Australia)
1992-2001
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje (1992, Canada/Sri Lanka)
The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (1993, Canada)
Paradise – Abdulrazak Gurnah (1994, Tanzania/England)
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry (1995, India/Canada)
Salt – Earl Lovelace (1996, Trinidad and Tobago)
The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (1997, India)
The Blue Bedspread – Raj Kamal Jha (1999, India)
Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee (1999, South Africa/Australia)
White Teeth – Zadie Smith (2000, England)
Life of Pi – Yann Martel (2001, Canada)
2002-2011
Small Island – Andrea Levy (2004, England)
The Secret River – Kate Grenville (2005, Australia)
The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2005, Australia)
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006, Nigeria)
A Golden Age – Tahmima Anam (2007, Bangladesh)
The Boat – Nam Le (2008, Australia)
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (2009, England)
The Book of Night Women – Marlon James (2009, Jamaica)
The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna (2010, Sierra Leone/Scotland)
Chinaman – Shehan Karunatilaka (2010, Sri Lanka)
2012-2021
Our Lady of the Nile – Scholastique Mukasonga (2012, Rwanda)
The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton (2013, New Zealand)
Behold the Dreamers – Imbolo Mbue (2016, Cameroon)
The Bone Readers – Jacob Ross (2016, Grenada)
How We Disappeared – Jing-Jing Lee (2019, Singapore)
Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo (2019, England)
The Night Tiger – Yangsze Choo (2019, Malaysia)
Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart (2020, Scotland)
A Passage North – Anuk Arudpragasam (2021, Sri Lanka)
The Promise – Damon Galgut (2021, South Africa)
Stop Press: The Free Speech Union has launched a CrowdJustice fundraiser so an author can sue her publisher for sacking her after she inlcuded the hashtag #IStandWithJKRowling in her Twitter bio. You can donate here.
Stop Press 2: A former BBC journalist has written a long, thoughtful piece for Persuasion about why the Corporation’s diversity targets are incompatible with its commitment to impartial, public service broadcasting.
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