Two children’s laureates to give Sally Rooney royalties after ban on UK sales

The children’s laureates for Ireland and Wales are donating royalties from their works to Sally Rooney in a show of solidarity after she was forced to stop selling books in the UK because of her support for Palestine Action.

Chris Haughton, Ireland’s children’s literature laureate, said he also wanted to demonstrate the “absurdity” of the bestselling author being unable to receive royalties from her own UK sales because of her public support for the direct action group.

Haughton, whose books have sold millions worldwide, said: “I really want to express my full support for Sally Rooney. As someone who is in the UK a lot of the time, I can’t do what she has done, but I can support her instead of supporting Palestine Action.

“As authors, we need to be focused on freedom of expression, this is everything we’re about, and this is just showing solidarity with an author who has bravely spoken out.

“The entire situation is just a farce. Sending Sally Rooney the money adds another level of absurdity to this absurd situation, it’s making a mockery of the law.”

Haughton said he has twice been arrested for holding placards allegedly supporting Palestine Action, which became the first direct action group to be proscribed under the UK Terrorism Act in July last year, placing it in the same category as the likes of al-Qaida and Boko Haram. His alleged offence carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison.

After the ban was introduced, Rooney, whose books include Normal People and Conversations with Friends, said that she would use proceeds from her sales to support Palestine Action. Providing money one knows or has reasonable cause to suspect will or may be used for terrorism carries a maximum jail term of 14 years.

Nicola Davies, children’s laureate for Wales and author of The Day War Came, about a child refugee from war, said: “I can’t say that I am standing up for the children of Wales if I allow the children of Gaza to be murdered and mutilated without comment.

“Gaza is smaller than the Welsh county of Flintshire, and it’s as if all Wales’s children were concentrated there and being bombed. So I support Sally Rooney in the stand she’s taken, and when my half-year royalties arrive shortly, I will donate to her the royalties from my book The Day War Came, whose sales have been boosted by the conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.”

Haughton, who will be donating royalties from his UK book sales, said: “Palestine Action are the only organisation – or the most effective organisation – in the UK that that has had some success in stopping arms going to a genocide, I’m very sure that I will be on the right side of history.”

Asked at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday whether he would review the ban on Palestine Action in light of Rooney’s situation, Andy Burnham said proscription “followed a rigorous and evidence-based process that came before this house, endorsed by parliament”.