Geraldine Bedell

The first Dubai Literary Festival begins next week but it looks as though most of its star cast won’t be attending. The organisers had good reason to be proud: Margaret Atwood, Anthony Horowitz, Kate Adie and Jung Chang are all billed, along with Penny Vincenzi, Ranulph Fiennes and Louis de Bernieres. Not bad. What a shame that they decided to shoot themselves so spectacularly in both feet – and the kneecaps as well. Writer Geraldine Bedell had planned to launch her novel The Gulf Between Us at the festival. As she writes in a blog for The Guardian, “It seemed a perfect fit. Mine is the only novel I know of in English (but I can’t think there are many in Arabic, either) set in a Gulf emirate.” All was going swimmingly –- until someone from the festival actually read the book. Upon discovering that one of the minor characters is a gay sheik, the director, Isabel Abudhoul, decided that the work “could offend certain cultural sensibilities” (see more in this Bookseller story) and Ms Bedell’s invitation was rescinded. Her publishers, Penguin, sorry, I meant to say that they were outraged by this blatant latent censorship (or, as Abudhoul suggests, they saw an opportunity) and started to kick up a fuss. This morning, Alison Flood reported in The Guardian that Margaret Atwood had withdrawn from the festival, saying that “as an international vice president of Pen –- an organisation concerned with the censorship of writers –- I cannot be part of the festival this year.” Others may follow. A case of damage limitation gone horribly wrong…