Ted Dawe explains in the UK press how his teen book got banned in New Zealand

The award-winning author of Into the River, which has been banned across New Zealand, on why we need a literature that is prepared to say the unsayable – and how a stable, democratic country is always vulnerable to hijacking by extreme groups, especially ones with God on their side

Ted Dawe - Tuesday 22 September 2015  The Guardian

 “Dear Mr Dawe, we have decided that your book is not the sort of thing we want to fall into the hands of young people. Yes, we know it has won prizes. Yes, we know that it has been in circulation for two years. Yes, we know that the censor passed it with the recommendation ‘suitable for older readers’. Yes, we know that, to date, no kid has complained …”

I suppose that in countries other than my own, this sort of thing happens a lot. When I read about what happens in Pakistan, in Nigeria, in North Korea, my reaction is “Thank God I live here!”

New Zealand is a safe, conservative place thousands of miles from anywhere except Australia; another safe, conservative place. Given this, then, it was shocking to discover that my book has provoked a backlash - that the very mechanism designed to protect our freedom has been used to limit it.

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