posted 8th December 2025
Kate Clanchy was an inspirational teacher and a multi-award winning writer, admired and celebrated for her pioneering work in encouraging children from a wide variety of backgrounds to write poetry. In 2020 she published a book about her experiences as a teacher, Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me. It won the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Then, in 2021, her world fell apart.
Some readers posted criticisms of her book online. They claimed she used racist language about her former students; that she patronised and belittled them; that, as a privileged white woman, she was using them to make her look like a hero. Clanchy defended herself. The controversy escalated. Writers and public figures took sides. She apologised for any offence caused; she rewrote her book. It wasn’t enough. Invitations to literary festivals, media appearances, writing commissions, all dried up. Her publishers sacked her. Kate Clanchy was cancelled.
Should she have been? Was she the victim of self-righteous puritanism? Or were her critics right to call her out for perpetuating racist stereotypes? What happened to Kate Clanchy raises all kinds of debatable questions: about free speech and censorship; about where racism comes from and how we should respond to it; about how children should be taught; about the responsibility of writers.
The BBC Radio 4 podcast about the Clanchy case, Anatomy of a Cancellation, is an extended debate on all these issues. The presenter, Katie Razzall, acts as chair, alternating episodes between Clanchy’s supporters and her critics. Each episode is scrupulously researched, and interviews are conducted with courtesy and respect. You find yourself agreeing first with one side, then the other. Whatever your initial, instinctive response to the issue, by the end of the podcast you will have been forced to think again; perhaps to change your mind. This is the best kind of debate. Highly recommended for all debaters.
