Chris Haughton and Nicola Davies donate royalties to Sally Rooney

By Daniel Okafor

Chris Haughton and Nicola Davies will donate book royalties (payments from sales) to Sally Rooney after her UK sales stopped.

The ban forced Rooney to stop selling books in the UK after her public support for Palestine Action.

Who is donating the royalties?

Chris Haughton is Ireland’s children’s literature laureate. He said he wanted to show the “absurdity” of the bestselling author being unable to receive royalties from her own UK sales. The cause was her support for Palestine Action.

Haughton said his books have sold millions worldwide. He will donate royalties from his UK sales.

“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. Palestine Action became the first direct action group to be proscribed (formally banned) under the UK Terrorism Act in July last year. The designation placed 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.

Nicola Davies is the children’s laureate for Wales and the author of The Day War Came, about a child refugee from war. Her half-year royalties will arrive shortly. She will donate royalties from that book to Rooney.

“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 also 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.”

The arrangement is politically awkward, and not especially discreet: children’s-book royalties from Ireland and Wales will support a writer who can no longer receive royalties from her own UK sales.

What does the ban change?

Rooney, whose books include Normal People and Conversations with Friends, said she would use the proceeds from her sales to support Palestine Action. That pledge followed the introduction of the ban.

Under the UK Terrorism Act, the stated maximum jail term is 14 years. The offence covers providing money where one knows or has reasonable cause to suspect it will or may be used for terrorism.

The result is administratively quite odd: one writer loses UK royalties while two children’s laureates donate earnings from their own books directly to her instead.

What happens on 4 and 5 November?

At prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Andy Burnham was asked whether he would review the ban in light of Rooney’s situation. He said the proscription:

“followed a rigorous and evidence-based process that came before this house, endorsed by parliament”.

Burnham declined to comment further because the Supreme Court is due to hear the legal challenge on 4 and 5 November. The challenge argues that the ban disproportionately interferes with the rights to freedom of expression and protest.

The next formal test is judicial, not another review at prime minister’s questions.

On 4 and 5 November, the Supreme Court will hear the challenge over whether the ban disproportionately interferes with the rights to freedom of expression and protest.