Wrapping Up Rachel Rooney for Christmas

How the Society of Authors failed one of its members

This guest post is written by the children’s author Rachel Rooney. Anyone who’s been paying attention to the bullying occurring within the publishing world in recent years will know her name and know the basics of what happened to her. What most don’t know is what went on behind the scenes when she approached her union for help. She lays it bare here. I implore you to read it. Every word.

The back cover of Rachel Rooney’s My Body is Me

Wrapping Up Rachel Rooney for Christmas

by Rachel Rooney

I first wrote to my union, the Society of Authors (SoA), in December 2019 to complain about the targeted bullying of me by some of their members. The smears and lies that were told about me in this period were notably supported by a handful of senior Management Committee (ManCon) members of the Society.

Requests for useful intervention from SoA to assist in quelling these members’ online attacks were met with the phrase 'We don't get involved in author disputes,' despite the fact that these 'disputes' were mainly launched from behind a block and were one-way. My requests that ManCom members desist in their attacks were also brushed aside. In September 2022, after two years of fruitless dialogue with SoA Chief Executive, Nicola Solomon, and after filing an official request for an investigation to be heard beyond Solomon, I received this short statement from her.

'The detail of your complaints will not be raised with the Management Committee as they fall outside our complaints procedures. We will inform them in general terms.'

I resubmitted my complaint, citing discrimination based on my autism for Nicola's handling of my initial complaint - which I felt still needed investigating. Finally, in October 2022 my case was taken up for investigation by a 3-person panel chosen by Society of Authors. I was asked in advance to keep the outcome of this investigation confidential, which I did NOT agree to. I did however agree to keep details of the investigation process confidential as it was being conducted. The process took seven long months. In that time, I had submitted a DSAR (Data Subject Access Request) which brought new information to light.  When I received the final investigative report in April 2023, I was not satisfied with the outcome because, while it did acknowledge the distress I had experienced and the poor handling of my complaints by Nicola Solomon, it did not address many of my initial complaints. These complaints included a) cited discrimination against those authors who hold gender critical beliefs, b) the part ManCom members had played in the bullying of me, and c) the failure of the Society of Authors to support or intervene to protect me over the years.

I then filed this letter in April 2023. I would still like a formal and public apology:

Dear Management Committee,

This is an appeal against the outcome of my complaint referencing complaints sent from December 2019 - September 2022, against Nicola Solomon, members of ManCom and the Society of Authors as an organisation .

Reasons for Appeal

I’m glad the investigative team acknowledge that Nicola Solomon’s responses to me were ‘disappointing’ and that you all want to improve your communication with neurodivergent people. Of course, I am happy for my experiences to be used for the SoA to update its complaints policy. But the report stopped short of the remedy I had asked for. That is one reason for this appeal. The other is that during the investigation process I made a DSAR. This revealed concerning details of how the SoA had been responding to me over many years.  I believe they show discrimination occurring over more than simply my ASD and I thought you should see them so you could reconsider my case.

Background :

 I came late to writing after a 25 year career as a trained special needs teacher, most recently as a pre-school assessment teacher in a specialist nursery. I went on to publish several picture books and had 3 poetry collections that had both wonand been twice shortlisted for the CLiPPA. My main income was through schools work: in 2019 I completed an Arts Council funded 2 year poetry project working with autistic teen girls. Through this I became concerned with the increasing number of vulnerable autistic girls identifying out of or rejecting their sexed bodies. In early December 2019 I published ‘My Body is Me!’ with Jessica Ahlberg’s illustrations. I’d invite you all to read it here. It’s only 280 words long- so you can make your own judgement on it. (see attached 1)

Initial Problem

On the 6^th of December 2019, a few days after the book was announced and before it had reached buyers, it came under attack on twitter. Without having read it, Clara Vulliamy, the daughter of famous author Shirley Hughes, wrote :

Important! parents, teachers and librarians should be aware that picture book My Body is Me, with it's seemingly wholesome 'love the body you were born with' message, is published by Transgender Trend ….this is a political motivated trans-hostile group seeking in particular to infiltrate schools and undermine support for trans and gender-enquiring children. please RT to get the message out there. thank you…@AuthorsAloudUK  you need to be aware of this with author Rachel Rooney who is on your books; ideologically driven school visits could see us all in deep water… An author must take responsibility for their work the same as everyone else. We aren’t entitled to income at the expense of the wellbeing of schoolchildren.

This thread was very popular and was notably retweeted by Joanne Harris, Chair of the SoA, and Dawn Finch, Chair of CWIG. Robin Stevens, a CWIG committee member, also supported the attacks. Dawn Finch also supported posts that said MBIM was thinly-veiled propaganda and hate speech.

I was very concerned and rightly so. This thread resulted in attacks on my other books, further calls for boycotting, a drop in bookings, promotion restrictions by nervous publishers, distancing by former supportive colleagues, abusive trolling and damages to my mental and physical health.

I turned to the only help I had, my union, the SoA. I'd previously flagged up a similar slander but been told it was a 'dispute between authors' and the SoA couldn’t intervene. I’d asked about defamation too and been given discouraging information. This Dec 2019 tweet though, with its direct appeal to the AuthorsAloudUK group, and the phalanx of approval from SoA people, seemed different. The Head of Groups,*redacted* had seemed understanding when I talked to her previously, so I wrote to her. She told me that the tweet wasn't libellous on 6/12/2019, and of course  I trusted her – ASD people are unusually trusting, and I had no other help..

 As I have said before we don’t get involved in disputes between members, this isn’t on our platform, and isn’t libellous.

on the 9^th of December I wrote to *redacted* again:

'It is specifically Clare V's thread I am concerned about. As you can see it has been retweeted 340 times. Several authors and librarians have retweeted it… She says I am spreading a hate filled agenda and she @'s Authors Aloud in. She says I'm 'coming for children'

*Redacted* then wrote to Nicola Solomon, acknowledging the damage occurring.

Rachel Rooney again. Clara Vuillamy (Shirley Hughes’ daughter) who has directly called on Authors Aloud (this is a company that organises school visits) not to have her on their books and for librarians not to book her….

This has all been prompted by publication of the above book – illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg (another daughter of famous writer/illustrator parents in this case Alan and Janet Ahlberg. It would be completely innocuous if done by a mainstream publisher (no hidden messages that I could see – about accepting yourself and your body) but for the fact that the publisher is Transgender Trend puts a different spin on it…

I’d invite you to look up the publisher being referred to, TransgenderTrend, and the awards and accolades it has won for its work safeguarding children. It’s important to point out though, that the SoA shouldn’t be discriminating on the grounds of publisher in any case since its purpose is to work for the rights of authors. There are many members of the SOA published by religious and politically partisan publishers such as the Catholic Truth Society or Pluto Press: their rights should also be defended. It was discriminatory of *redacted* to suggest there was a problem with Transgender Trend, and it was also discriminatory to point out the rich and famous parents of Clara Vuillamy and Jessica Ahlberg: it gave them importance over me. These factors may have played into Nicola Solomon’s initial reply.

Honestly- I would keep well out…. Just let it run.

Nicola Solomon then read the Clara Vuillamy thread and emailed *redacted*

The tweet about the group IS potentially defamatory… Maybe suggest she gets advice? And we could send Clara and others our guidelines – basically saying play nicely- but I am concerned it will escalate, not settle. I am seeing Shirley fairly soon and could have a quiet word?

I find this email very upsetting. It shows me that there was a prestigious group of wealthy London people like Nicola Solomon herself – ‘Shirley’ and ‘Clara’ – who Nicola Solomon was afraid of upsetting, even to the mild extent of sending SoA guidelines. It is demeaning to speak of the serious issues I had raised – issues which cut to the core of my integrity as well as my reputation and my living - as a child’s game to be solved by a ‘quiet word’ with ‘Clara’s mother and an instruction to ‘play nicely’. It shows that Nicola Solomon thought of me as a lesser person because I came from a less privileged social group and had different opinions to her on gender identity ideology. And most painfully of all it shows me that the SoA had information they withheld from me: that an immensely experienced and skilled lawyer thought the tweet probably WAS defamatory.

I was in a very vulnerable position at that point because I am from a working-class background and have no wealth. I couldn’t afford legal advice. I trusted my union to be honest and impartial with me. I had nowhere else to turn.  If I had been given Nicola Solomon’s legal opinion on that tweet in a clear, comprehensible way, I would very probably have taken the risk and sued Clara Vuillamy and won. But the SoA gave me contradictory information -first that it was  ‘not libellous’ , then, on the 10^th of December, a vague instruction to ‘seek advice’ and yet more links to services which, as an autistic person being bullied almost to breakdown, I found overwhelming.

The SoA were following their own agenda here. They wanted to shut me down because it would be more comfortable for their well-connected, important members. This was shown the next day, the 10^th of December, when under the contemptuous subject line Wrapping Up Rachel Rooney for Christmas, *redacted* wrote

Rachel will be satisfied if I post something to members and has now stopped emailing/DMing me …

Idk if you want to do something from the main Twitter account in a light-hearted play nicely or general newsletters …..

Nicola – I deliberately left out any mention of restraint of trade issues - encouraging librarians/trade/events bookers to boycot in a bid to downplay it all… Good idea or not?

Nicola Solomon agreed it was a good idea to ‘downplay’ any suggestion that the SOA objected to very considerable restraint of trade issues I was facing, again in the interest of being ‘lighthearted’, ‘less personal’ and ‘playing nicely’.

I believe the above was a discriminatory action against me for my disability, my lack of money and social status, and for my Gender Critical beliefs as shown by my choice of publisher. I believe if our situations had been reversed and I had placed a popular tweet calling for Clara Vuillamy to be boycotted the SoA would not have hesitated to advise her that my tweets were defamatory or to post strong advice on their website. I think that the SOA might even have made a public statement about it as they did in March 2022 when the author *redacted* had a single school visit cancelled.

Certainly, any ‘quiet words’ from Nicola Solomon did not have a helpful effect for me nor serve to temper Clara and her supporters. Over the next months I watched my career dry up as a consequence of Clara Vuillamy’s thread. It was issued by a powerful person and backed up by SoA officers, and it emboldened members and other industry people to continue to write new online slurs.  A year later, in December 2020,  Clara Vulliamy retweeted the thread and stated My Body is Me! was dangerous propaganda' and  'When we see adults acting in a manipulative or covert way we must step up and call it out', SoA President Philip Pullman's response 'Clara, I think you're wonderful. You have my full and unceasing support in this matter'.  I lost my living, my confidence and my reputation. I now no longer write or publish and work as a carer. My losses are beyond counting.

In December 2021 I reached another point of desperation. The poet Jay Hulme tweeted a new, shocking, and baseless lie about me:

At least she's stopped contacting my publishers to try and get my book deals cancelled, a feat which did actually succeed once, years ago.

I wasn't directly named in this thread but was easily identifiable from it. If anyone had been in any doubt, the identification was confirmed by Clara Vulliamy

'People within Children’s publishing you KNOW who this is about… you may stock her books.. you may not know the lengths she will go to '

This was then retweeted by Dawn Finch, Chair CWIG and a Management Committee member as stated in her bio ( see attached 2) This sort of behaviour and language from by Man Comm members, your report now agrees, ‘reflected poorly on the Society’ …’even when tweets were made in a personal capacity’ . At the time, though, I could get no such acknowledgement when I wrote to the SOA. I was very distressed, and Nicola Solomon knew well that I was autistic, but she replied with the verbal fencing of a court room.

I do not see that the exchange you have reproduced below calls for any action from the SoA' 'retweeting or even liking do not amount to agreement or comment. And you are not being named in this exchange'.

(I would be happy to share this full email exchange.)  Again, I do not believe that if Clara Vulliamy complained that SOA officers had tweeted slanders about her she would have been brushed off because she is wealthy, well-connected, neurotypical person with the same gender identity beliefs as Joanne Harris and Nicola Solomon. I think she would have been treated with sympathy and helpful advice, and the officers would have been asked to remove their tweets. When Sir Philip Pullman had a tweet up for just a few hours in August 2021 which offended non-member *redacted*, the rules about social media being a personal matter and not part of the SOA didn’t seem to apply.

It certainly seems that by August 2022 I was held in contempt at the SoA and seen as an enemy. This is illustrated by an exchange in August 2022 when a Management Committee member emailed Nicola Solomon that ‘Rachel Rooney was thinking of lawyering up’. Nicola Solomon replied

What possible legal claim could Rachel Rooney have against the SoA? Rather than be cowed we need to reiterate that we have behaved even handedly to all members and will continue to do so. I sent some slightly longer wording to Martin and Joanne which they can circulate as I am in a car!"

In the context of this tweet, I think it is easy to see why my attempts to complain to the SOA from December 2019 through to August and September 2022 were met with the ‘disappointing’ responses you have since criticized.  Nicola Solomon speaks of me as the opposition and seems to wish to defeat me. Yet she knew, more than anyone, that I had had a good legal case against my detractors and it was through her actions and lack of clear advice that I had let it run out of time.  Joanne Harris seemed to share this contempt when she continued to tweet allegations about me and the complaint procedure in November 2022, after my complaint was underway, and after I’d undertaken, and honoured, promises to be discreet about it. (see attachment 3)

I am glad that the SOA finally did concede to open itself to a complaint, and grateful to the committee members who listened to me carefully and insisted that my concerns be taken seriously.   I hope that after you have read this appeal with its new information you will not 'let it run' any further but will decide to extend an offer of amends that starts with a private and public apology. I’m open to discussing this. Failing that, I would request that the Management Committee reopens my complaint/s in full.

In writing this I am not giving up my right to keep the outcome of my appeal confidential nor am I waiving my rights to litigation.

I very much hope you will be able to meet to discuss this soon. This process has taken nearly nine months already and the delay is very painful for all of us.

Yours

Rachel Rooney