Joanne Harris receives OBE after calls to quit Society of Authors
Chocolat novelist Joanne Harris receives OBE from Prince William months after she faced calls to quit as Society of Authors chief over ‘tasteless’ Twitter poll on JK Rowling death threats
- Joanne Harris received an OBE for her services to literature at Windsor Castle
- Last year, Ms Harris won vote to unseat her as chair of the Society of Authors
Chocolat author Joanne Harris received an OBE for her services to literature after facing calls to quit as chair of the Society of Authors over a ‘tasteless’ Twitter poll about JK Rowling.
Ms Harris, 58, was among a number of stars including former footballer Chris Kamara and captain of the Wales women’s football team Sophie Ingle to be awarded the royal honours by Prince William at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.
The author, who has written 19 novels including the 1999 best-selling novel Chocolat which was adapted into a film starring Juliette Binoche, beamed after collecting her OBE.
It comes months after attempts to unseat the novelist as chief of the Society of Authors after she was accused of mocking the Harry Potter author a ‘tasteless’ Twitter poll about death threats.
Chocolat author Joanne Harris received an OBE for her services to literature on Tuesday
The author, who has written 19 novels, pictured accepting the royal honour from Prince William at Windsor Castle
Ms Harris caused outrage last year when she posted a Twiter poll that asked authors if they had ever received a death threat, after Ms Rowling had received death threats
Ms Harris posted the poll on Twitter in August after Ms Rowling had expressed her support for her fellow writer Sir Salman Rushdie, who had been stabbed at an event in the US.
Ms Rowling immediately received the response from a Twitter troll: ‘Don’t worry, you are next’.
Ms Harris then asked her Twitter followers: ‘Fellow-authors… have you ever received a death threat (credible or otherwise).’
The options to respond were ‘Yes’, ‘Hell, yes’, ‘No, never’ and ‘Show me, dammit’, suggesting scepticism about how serious the threats were.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling received a death threat after expressing solidarity with The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie, who had been stabbed in New York
After furious backlash, the poll was deleted, but Ms Harris faced a vote on she should be booted from the group’s management committee, backed by 10 members including Julie Bindel.
After the news emerged, Ms Harris tweeted claiming she too had received a death threat in an email that read: ‘We are coming for you’.
However, she saw off the attempt to remove her from the UK’s largest trade union of writers, illustrators and translators after 81 per cent of members backed her.
In November, members voted at their AGM whether Ms Harris should step down as chair, with 608 votes to 143 in her favour.
Following the vote, she thanked her supporters on Twitter, saying that ‘rationality has prevailed’.
She has held the role of chair of the Society of Author’s management committee since 2020.
The author recently came out in defence of Puffin Books amid the Roald Dahl row, describing the editing of his classics to update the language as ‘just business’.
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