Author burns her own books because she didn’t like the blurbs

An English author set fire to her own books because she didn’t like their “cosy little domestic blurbs”.

Writing on Twitter, Jeanette Winterson said she “absolutely hated” the blurbs on the new covers of her republished books so, naturally, she set them on fire:

Winterson is best known for her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which she wrote in 1985 at 23 years old. Since them she has been awarded an OBE for services to literature and has published more than a dozen books including The Passion, a novel set in Napoleonic Europe, Written on the Body, Art and Lies, and The Powerbook, all of which made it to the bonfire.

Why? Well speaking to The Guardian, Winterson said her books had done something “different” at the time they were published and the blurbs had made them sound “tame and obvious”.

She added:

“The publishers are fixing the problem but these are not copies I want to keep. I gave most of them away to charity but needed a symbolic burning to raise my spirits. I am the writer I am. But I wouldn’t buy one of my books with those suburban blurbs.

“I am quick tempered as people know. But I come back down pretty quick too and see the funny side. I was incandescent at the time.”

But reacting to her quick temper, people were not pleased to see the author “wasting” her books:

Others saw it as a “power move” and praised the author:

Goodness. We certainly won’t be getting on Winterson’s bad side.