'Wilful misreading': Lionel Shriver replies to critics in diversity row
Novelist responds to the reaction against her comments on diversity in publishing, accusing her critics of ‘malicious misinterpretation’
Lionel Shriver has responded to the vituperative row that followed her recent comments about Penguin Random House’s diversity scheme, saying that it was not diversity but quotas that she was objecting to and calling out what she described as the “malicious misinterpretation” of her original essay.
In a piece for the Spectator this month, Shriver objected to the publisher’s goal for its staff and authors to represent UK society by 2025. “Drunk on virtue, Penguin Random House no longer regards the company’s raison d’etre as the acquisition and dissemination of good books,” she wrote. “Rather, the organisation aims to mirror the percentages of minorities in the UK population with statistical precision.”
Related: Diversity in publishing is under attack. I hear the sound of knuckles dragging | Hanif Kureishi
