Puffin UK has announced the release of the Roald Dahl Classic Collection "to keep the author's classic texts in print", following criticism of recent editing of his work to remove potentially offensive language.
Classic books from the much-loved but controversial children's author have been rewritten to cater for the sensitivities of modern audiences.
The Roald Dahl Story Company and Puffin Books carried out a review of Dahl's classics which led to the removal or rewriting of content deemed offensive, including references to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race.
But critics including acclaimed author Salman Rushdie and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak later condemned the changes.
Francesca Dow managing director of Penguin Random House Children's, today said: "At Puffin we have proudly published Roald Dahl's stories for more than 40 years in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company.
"Their mischievous spirit and his unique storytelling genius have delighted the imaginations of readers across many generations.
We've listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl's books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.
As a children's publisher, our role is to share the magic of stories with children with the greatest thought and care.
Roald Dahl's fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.
We also recognise the importance of keeping Dahl's classic texts in print. By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl's magical, marvellous stories.
"Roald Dahl once said: 'If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important'. At Puffin, we'll keep pursuing that ambition for as long as we make books".
The publishing company confirmed 17 Dahl titles will be published under the Penguin logo, including archive material relevant to each of the stories, and will be available later this year.
The Roald Dahl Classic Collection will sit alongside the newly released Puffin Roald Dahl books for young readers and readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl's stories they prefer.
Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74 but has regularly topped the list of the nation's favourite authors. But his legacy has been marred by his anti-semitic views.
In 2020, his family apologised, saying they recognised the "lasting and understandable hurt caused by Roald Dahl's anti-semitic statements".
While His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman suggested Dahl's works should be left to "fade away" and go out of print as modern tastes move on.
Emma O'Reilly, children's senior bookseller at Hodges Figgis in Dublin, said Roald Dahl books are "such a popular choice for kids and for parents when they come into the shop".
She said "parents are still buying them just as much as they were when they were younger".
"I think it's something they've grown up with through the generations and they want to pass it onto their children," she added.
Ms O’Reilly said "it's kind of a contemporary classic and a lot of parents tend to lean towards the Roald Dahls".
"They're brilliant books and they're a great start for kids to get into reading and it's usually kind of a gateway into that hobby, that passion."
Children’s author and illustrator Oisín McGann said there is a "big difference between publishing for young children and publishing for adults".
He said: "If you republish for an adult and an adult bringing their experience in their context to a text, if they know it's something that was published in the 1970s, they know it's going to have certain values that we wouldn't necessarily have in a book today or would expect in the book today."
However, he added: "If you have a nine-year-old who's picking up a new edition of an old book in a bookshop, as far as they're concerned, this is a new book and this is what the publishing industry thinks is okay today.
"A young reader reads with immediacy, they're reading stuff in the now. They're not coming to it and saying I know this book was published in 1980 and things were a bit different and we wouldn't put up with that kind of stuff now."
Mr McGann said "children’s publishing is constantly reviewing what it publishes and whether that's acceptable and they're getting input from people who haven't always been very well represented in books".
"There has always been a commercial decision if something is not suitable for children that we once thought it was, do we pull the book or just let it kind of go out of print or do we change the book and let readers keep reading it?"
Additional reporting Fergal O'Brien
