Bath Children’s Literature Festival It is facing criticism after its founder emailed writers asking them to remove social media posts about the festival’s lack of diversity at the 2026 event.
The authors said that their comments criticizing the festival for lack of representation under a post on the Instagram page were deleted, with the original post later removed and comments on other posts limited.
Several writers said they received an email on Monday evening from one of the founders, John Maclay, asking them to remove their comments because they “did not check the entire line-up before going to keyboard”.
John McClay, a children’s literary scout, founded the festival 19 years ago with his wife Gill, an agent at the Bath Literary Agency.
Gil Maclay defended the decision to contact the authors directly, saying that the festival wanted a post containing misinformation, which claimed that there were no writers of color on the program.
The email cited seven writers of color on the programme, one of whom is UK-Cypriot, as evidence that the complaints were false. The event features around 100 events in total, and bills itself as the UK’s largest children’s literature festival.
festival Also contacted one of the author’s agents and asked him to withdraw his comments.
Gil Maclay said, “Maybe that wasn’t the right way to respond to this and we’ve apologized for that.” “It was certainly not our intention to silence anyone. It was absolutely our intention to try and make sure this was the correct information.”
Sophie Anderson, a children’s author who received the emails, told the Guardian: “It is absolutely appalling to see such a powerful person in the industry sending such threatening and intimidating emails.”
Alexandra Shepard, a writer whose video about the situation has garnered over 20,000 views, said that “the fear of being blacklisted for criticizing powerful organizations feels very real”. She is now organizing an open letter to be sent to the festival.
in one Instagram In the statement, the festival said it was “very proud of this year’s line-up”, but that it “heard the comments made”. Although it “chose authors and illustrators from a selection submitted by publishers”, it said it would “work hard to ensure that we are represented as much as possible”, adding that it had “already brought new people into the management of the festival to help us with this”.
The authors argue that the issue reflects a wider pattern, with similar concerns raised about other events, including the London Children’s Literature Festival.
“We need to do better in 2026,” said author Iqbal Hussain. “We’re neither living in a Regency bath, nor in 1950s London.”
The controversy comes amid wider concerns about representation in children’s books. recent Education Department figures show that 38.7% of school-age pupils in England are from minority ethnic backgrounds, but Eighth Reflected Reality SurveyRun by the Center for Literacy in Primary Education, found that only 24% of books had main characters from racial minorities, down from 30% in 2022.
“I’ve seen countless conversations, panels, articles and social media posts about how publishing can better reflect young readers,” Shepard said. “If an organization like BCLF still lacks meaningful inclusion, the reason is simple: They don’t want it.”
Campaigners have warned that limited representation could further alienate young readers who struggle to see their lives reflected in books.
Gil Maclay told the Guardian that work was being done to improve the festival, citing steps such as introducing a steering committee. “Today, all we’re asking is that people give us a chance to do it better,” he said.
