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Pan Macmillan apologises to Kate Clanchy years after controversy
Pan Macmillan has taken the unprecedented step of apologising to its former author Kate Clanchy four years after it parted company with the writer. Clanchy left her publisher Picador in January 2022 after her book, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, was accused of perpetuating racial stereotyping, an accusation she denies.
The statement put out by Joanna Prior, CEO, Pan Macmillan – who took on the role in 2022, a year after the controversy flared – read: "This was clearly a regrettable series of events in Pan Macmillan’s past. I’m sorry for the hurt that was caused to Kate Clanchy and many others."
A six-part BBC podcast on the events that took place in 2021 – Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation – is to be aired from 12th November, and features interviews with many caught up in the episode, including authors Philip Pullman and Monisha Rajesh. In a preview of the series now on the BBC, Clanchy says she was "scapegoated", while one unidentified voice calls what happened to her as a witch hunt. Others, though, saw it as a reckoning at a time when publishers were still responding to the killing of the US Black man George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The apology was sent to the Times, which has run a lengthy interview with Clanchy, and also to the BBC. Macmillan refused to be drawn on what prompted the apology, and Clanchy said she was surprised by it.
According to the newspaper, the programme will be informed by a series of email trails disclosed last year to Clanchy, under legislation guaranteeing a citizen’s right to make "subject access requests" to organisations with which they have dealt.
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The Times writes that while Pan Macmillan produced only a heavily redacted version of its internal correspondence, Four Communications, an outside PR firm it had hired, took a different view of the law and sent her everything.
Clanchy has spoken publicly about the impact the events had on her, including contemplating suicide. She has also criticised the Society of Authors for failing to support her, although the Society says she was not a member at the time, and that it does not involve itself in disputes between authors.
Authors Sunny Singh, Monisha Rajesh and Chimene Suleyman were widely associated with the online criticism at the time, but have largely stayed away from commenting publicly on the the situation since. The Bookseller approached Singh for comment. Rajesh is believed to have taken part in the podcast.
Clanchy told The Bookseller: "I’m grateful for the apology from Joanna Prior. It puts the events in the past where they belong while also acknowledging that I and many other people were hurt. I hope this, and the podcast, will help everyone in publishing to have some constructive, open conversations."
Swift Press republished Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me in 2023.
