3. The Paper Trail

Katie Razzall considers the internal reaction at publishing house Pan Macmillan during the storm surrounding Kate Clanchy’s memoir Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me.

As online criticism of the book intensifies, Kate Clanchy’s publisher faces mounting pressure from readers, authors, and its own staff. Drawing on a trove of redacted internal emails, the episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how a major publisher grapples with a moment of reputational crisis.

In Shadow World: Anatomy of a Cancellation, the BBC’s Culture Editor Katie Razzall revisits a story that rocked the UK’s publishing industry in 2021. It led to what some saw as the unjustified cancellation of a prize-winning writer and teacher - but to others, was a long overdue reckoning for the world of publishing. It grew into a culture war about race, class, and who has the right to say what.

Anatomy of a Cancellation explores a range of different perspectives to consider how people now view one of the most controversial literary rows in recent memory.

Presenter: Katie Razzall
Producer: Charlotte McDonald
Additional production: Octavia Woodward
Production co-ordinators: Sophie Hill and Katie Morrison
Sound design and mix: James Beard
Story editing: Meara Sharma
Series producer: Matt Willis
Senior news editor: Clare Fordham
Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning editor: Dan Clarke

It was a BBC Long Form Audio production for Radio 4.