Swift Press has acquired Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me after its author and original publisher Picador ‘parted company’ last month following widespread criticism of the book

An independent publisher, Swift Press, has acquired Kate Clanchy’s Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me, after she and her original publisher Picador “part[ed] company” last month following controversy over the racial tropes and ableist descriptions in the Orwell prize-winning title.

Swift Press, which was set up in June 2020, said it approached Clanchy after reading that she and Picador were no longer working together. Its reissued version of the title, which details Clanchy’s experiences as a teacher, removes the words and phrases which had prompted widespread criticism from readers and contains a new afterword from Clanchy in which she writes of how she “still think[s] that my beleaguered, faulty text is worth reading”.