The celebrity cook Jamie Oliver has a sideline as an author. Not all his books are about cooking and food: Oliver has written two children’s books as well, Billy and the Great Giant Adventure and its sequel, Billy and the Epic Escape.
Oliver’s books sell very well, thank you, and have presumably made a fortune for him and his publisher, Penguin Random House. But Billy and the Epic Escape will no longer be an earner for them. Thanks to a handful of Australian Aboriginal offence-takers, the book has suddenly been withdrawn from sale, not uncoincidentally while Oliver is in Australia on a promotional tour.
It’s a work of fantasy fiction, for heaven’s sake
One chapter of Oliver’s latest novel caused complaints. While the story is mostly set in Britain, it is an adventure that, according to one reader online review, ‘dishes up a tasty round of derring-do with several meaty topics on the side’. You could say it’s Oliver’s recipe for a ripping children’s yarn served with a dollop of Victorian moralism.