‘Britain’s Nastiest Novelist’: Literary Firestorm As Writers Rip The New Statesman For ‘Misogynistic’ JK Rowling Feature
Author JK Rowling is best known for her fiction series Harry Potter. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
The New Statesman magazine is under fire over an article published Monday about Harry Potter series author JK Rowling that led to allegations of misogyny after branding the writer “Britain’s nastiest novelist.”
The article, written by Nick Hilton, paints Rowling as a figure who evolved far from her origins as a “saint-like Labour Party-supporting children’s author” to someone fixated on “tabloid media, Scottish nationalism, and gender-critical feminism.”
Hilton delves into Rowling’s crime fiction, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, highlighting the dark and gory elements in her Cormoran Strike novels, like The Ink Black Heart and The Running Grave. He muses that Rowling’s foray into the dark and gory realms of crime fiction under mirrors her own transformation.
The critique extended to Rowling’s online presence, accusing her of a lack of “self-awareness” as she allegedly mirrors the very “vicious keyboard warriors and hysterical reactionaries” she denounces in her books. Hilton characterised Rowling as “brittle, insecure, cruel” – qualities he argues could make her a fitting character in her own crime novels.
Hilton’s review has been met with fierce backlash. Critics, including published writers and Rowling’s supporters, have slammed the piece as sexist and unfounded.
John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, condemned the article as “misogynistic, disgusting & unworthy of any serious magazine”.
Hadley Freeman, a Times journalist, echoed these sentiments on Twitter, criticising the review’s tone.
Unherd’s Josephine Bartosch, frustrated that Hilton did not include Rowling’s philanthropic donations to domestic violence charities and space, called the article a “hit piece” and mused that the writer had “inability to separate his disdain for the artist and her views from the work she produces.”
Hours after the article was published, Hilton deleted his X account. The New Statesman, in response to the uproar, tweaked the headline to the less abrasive: “JK Rowling, Britain’s Gloriously Nasty Novelist.” The magazine, however, stood firm behind the article.
In a statement to the Telegraph, a spokesperson from the magazine said: “Our critic wrote a largely positive review of JK Rowling’s Robert Galbraith series of crime novels, in which he describes the books as “electric – shocking and exciting in a way good crime fiction should be” and praises their “dizzyingly immersive” fictional world. Far from expressing misogynistic views, he notes that, sadly, ‘being celebrated for sheer nastiness is a privilege so often reserved for male authors’. We encourage everyone to read the piece in full.”
Rowling’s stance on gender issues has made her a polarising figure. Her defence of women’s spaces and insistence on biological sex over gender self-identification led to public rebukes from Harry Potter film stars, including actor Daniel Radcliffe.
In 2023, Rowling famously declared she would rather face imprisonment than be forced to acknowledge someone by their self-identified gender. This comment came amidst discussions of a Labour government proposal to classify gender-motivated hatred as an aggravated offence.
