A children's book written by British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been withdrawn from sale after it was criticized for causing offense to Indigenous Australians. The Guardian reported Saturday that the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corp. blasted Billy and the Epic Escape, which was published earlier this year, for employing a series of tropes about Indigenous Australians, including their relationships with the natural and spiritual worlds. The group criticized one of the subplots of the book, which tells the story of a Aboriginal girl living in foster care, for contributing to the "erasure, trivialization, and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences," per the AP.
Oliver, 49, said he was "devastated" to have caused offense and apologized "wholeheartedly" in a statement. "It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue," he said. "Together with my publishers we have decided to withdraw the book from sale." Indigenous campaigners were particularly aghast that neither Oliver nor his publishers, Penguin Random House, had consulted with them before the novel was published. "It is clear that our publishing standards fell short on this occasion, and we must learn from that and take decisive action," the publisher said, adding that it had agreed with Oliver to withdraw the book worldwide.
Oliver, who is in Australia promoting his latest recipe book, is among multiple celebrities to put their names to children's books, a trend that has been criticized by many children's authors who say they are being crowded out of the market, per the AP. Oliver released his first children's book, Billy and the Giant Adventure, last year and said in a social media post that he had "carefully chosen the font to make sure the text is as clear as possible" as dyslexic people like himself can find it hard to read. Oliver rose to fame in 1999 with his book and TV show The Naked Chef.
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