A candid, haunting novel about the coming-of-age of a teenage girl. Full of decadent sexuality that would have given the censors a fit of the vapours.
S3 E7 Queer, with cocktails: Moore, ‘Chocolates for Breakfast’ (1956)
S3 E6 War is hell: Boell, ‘And where were you, Adam?’ (1951)
How did a subtle, refined war novel earn a ban? Perhaps the faeces and war crimes were more offensive than the barely-there sex.
S3 E5 Unzipped! Collins, ‘The Stud’ (1969)
This is a silly rather than sexy book. Why on earth was such a trashy, ridiculous banned when the censor ignored sex in serious literature?
S3 E4 Perverty Stuff: Salinger, ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (1951)
Holden Caulfield’s swearing and sex talk has offended many since 1951. This book is now a modern classic but why is a story of a poor little rich kid still read and enjoyed today?
S3 E3 Such badness: Hoult, ‘There were no windows’ (1944)
Hoult was banned more often than any other Irish woman writer. Only the censor’s beady eye could see filth in a novel about loneliness and dementia.
S3 E1 Voluptuous Jazzing: McKay, ‘Home to Harlem’ (1928
A love letter to Harlem and it’s music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay’s honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory.
S3 E1 Low and Vulgar: Cross, ‘The Tailor and Ansty’ (1942)
A little book of folklore that became infamous. It was debated in parliament where nationalists denounced the elderly couple who were the subject of the book. But was the bull/cow story really that rude?
S2 BONUS Smut: There’s something about Mary: Donleavy, ‘The Ginger Man’ (1954)
There was too much filth for one episode, so I made another one! I needed to rant about Mary, one of the women wronged by Sebastian Dangerfield. How did Mary, a strong woman with her own bank account and coalshed, fare when she joined Dangerfield in London? There’s shagging aplenty but it’s not a happy ending.
S2 E10 Filth and Faeces: Beckett, ‘More Pricks than Kicks’ (1934)
A riotous, whirling, silly read that hides it’s rudeness with classical allusions and puns. The blasphemous, punning and lewd title earned it’s ban but there was a profusion of filth within.
S2 E9 Rapey Noir: Keene, ‘Sleep with the Devil’ (1954)
The censor hated Keene’s pulp noir, banning his work many times. This taut thriller was full of violence but it was also a morality tale.
