Say No To Age Banding [Cheltenham Festival]

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The new practice of displaying age ratings on children’s books has been branded “ridiculous” by leading erotic novelist Jilly Cooper.

A number of publishing houses have this autumn begun putting “age bands” on their children’s books, to indicate whether they are suitable for readers aged 5+, 7+, 9+, 11+ or 13+/teen.

Erotic writer Jilly Cooper and crime novelist Ian Rankin, speaking at the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival this weekend, added their voices to the protest from writers against the practice of “age banding”.

Ms Cooper, famous for her racy ‘bonk buster’ novels such as Riders and Wicked, said: “It’s ridiculous. I can’t see how it would work. How do you put an age on that?”

Ian Rankin, who was a Guest Director of the Cheltenham Literature Festival this weekend, said: “We've been here so many times in the past with books that are meant to be dangerous and shocking. We've been there a few times with books meant for the teenage market that deal with homosexuality or drug abuse or whatever is deemed to be ‘dangerous’, in inverted commas.

“It's extraordinary, these amateurs who say what we can and can't read.”

The controversy came to light earlier this year when the novel Cookie by celebrated children’s author Jacqueline Wilson was given a 9+ rating, even though the novelist had signed the Say No To Age Banding petition, spearheaded by Philip Pulman, which has received over 750 signatures from leading children’s writers including JK Rowling and Terry Pratchett.

Besides the ideological concerns over prescribing what children can and cannot read, many authors and independent booksellers have expressed fears that age banding will put unfair pressure on children who are not strong readers.

Ms Cooper said: “If there's one child who's not very bright how do you say what age he reads at?”

One young reader, 13-year-old Hannah from Northumberland, said: “I think it's an awful idea because older children might be embarrassed about reading books for a younger age.”

Mr Rankin, author of the Rebus novels, agreed. “It's especially aggrieving to children's writers who could be starting to not be read by under 12s or under 8s, for example.

“It's the publishers. I don't know who's putting pressure on publishers to do this. So put your name to the petition - there's a petition to stop it.”

Mr Rankin explained that being able to read any book, regardless of its “suggested age”, was an important part of a child’s experience with reading and literature.

“At a young age, I started going to my local library and borrowing books because I discovered that no-one would stop me borrowing books from the library of films that I wasn't old enough to go and see at the cinema. I couldn't go and see Straw Dogs, I couldn't go and see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I couldn't go and see the Godfather, these were all 18 certificate or X certificate, but I could walk into a library as a 12-year-old and nobody could stop me taking those books out.

“Books were for me illicit information. It was a fantastic sort of rite of passage.”

Publishing houses have claimed that parents would welcome the guidance on age ratings for books, and have said that they will press ahead with the scheme unless individual authors object.

A statement from the Publishers' Association Children's Book Group said: "There always has been, and still is, no question of age guidance being added to a book without full consultation with the author."

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