The Big Jubilee Read was written to celebrate 70 major readings from across the Commonwealth, one for each year of the Queen’s reign, and to spark a debate. A long list of audience supporters, including Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was limited by a group of librarians, academics, booksellers, and other literary figures. However, Rowling, the most successful British writer of her generation, was rejected amid allegations that the committee wanted to prioritize someone whose work was less well known.
“Great discussion about JK Rowling”
The classic literary works that reached the cut were Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange, Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea, John Le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Rowling has been insulted since she was accused of transphobia in June 2020, when she mocked an online article that used the words “menstruating men” instead of “women”. She has since defended herself against the allegations. “There was a lot of discussion about JK Rowling,” Susheila Nasta, a competition judge and emeritus professor of modern literature at Queen Mary and Westfield University, told the Sunday Times. “He was on the long list of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. A place was cleared for someone equally good but his work was not so well known. “There were some very difficult decisions.” Although the Jubilee list does not include a book published each year during the Queen’s reign, it is not far off – with each set of options spanning a decade.
