New Delhi: A slew of Agatha Christie novels have been edited to exclude potentially offensive language, such as insults and references to certain ethnic groups, according to an article by The Guardian.This includes the Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries, which were written between 1920 and 1976. Certain passages have been reworked or ditched entirely in the new editions being published by HarperCollins. The edits have been done to remove language and descriptions perceived as offensive by modern audiences. Much usage of such language has occurred in stories that place Christie’s main characters outside of the UK. Examples of such language are describing a character as black, Jewish or Gypsy, a female character’s torso as “of black marble”, a judge’s “Indian temper”, as well as the words “Oriental”, the N-word, and “natives”. The last has been replaced entirely with the word “local”.One particularly striking instance is from the 1937 Poirot novel Death on the Nile. The character, Mrs Allerton complains that a group of children are pestering her, saying that “they come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children”. This has been changed to, “They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children.”Sensitivity readers made these edits seen in the digital versions of the new editions. They vet new and older works for offensive language and descriptions to improve diversity in the publishing industry. The entire Miss Marple series and certain Poirot novels are in the process of being re-launched since 2020, according to The Telegraph. Thus happening amidst controversies around edits made to works by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to remove offensive references to gender. Like in the case of Christie’s books, these edits have also been done to keep their appeal to modern audiences intact. The Roald Dahl controversyPenguin, which had published Dahl’s works, hired sensitivity readers to rewrite large parts of the author’s work so that the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”. Yet, the original versions will still be printed and published. The language identified as offensive, ranges from descriptions of characters’ physical appearances, using the words “fat” and “ugly”, and antisemitic references, for instance to the characters’ big noses in The Witches.The publisher added gender-neutral terms in some cases. For example, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Oompa Loompas were previously described as “small men”, and are now “small people”. The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach are now Cloud-People.Facing backlash about these changes and allegations of censorship, Penguin has now said it will reprint the original as well.Ian FlemingTo mark the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale, Fleming’s first book featuring the British spy James Bond, a complete set of the thrillers will be reissued. They will contain the disclaimer, which reads as, “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.”Racist language is one element that will be removed. In Live and Let Die, Bond’s comments that would-be African criminals in the gold and diamond trades are “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much” has been reworked to “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought”.Another focus is on sexist language. In a part of the book where Bond visits a nightclub in Harlem, a reference to the “audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough” has been changed to “Bond could sense the electric tension in the room”.