Scottish National Library Faces Renewed Push to Drop Feminist Book

Scotland’s national library is once again at the center of a high-stakes censorship row, as a group of trans and queer activists and arts workers push to remove a bestselling feminist anthology from a flagship exhibition.

The National Library of Scotland is facing a fresh open letter urging its board to drop The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, an essay collection featuring contributors including J.K. Rowling and former MP Joanna Cherry. According to reporting in the Scottish Daily Mail, signatories claim the book’s return has made the library “unsafe and hostile” for queer and trans staff.

From Removal to Reinstatement — and Backlash Again

The book was voted into the library’s centenary exhibition by the public, but was pulled from display earlier this year after internal complaints. That move sparked a fierce backlash from donors, writers, and free-speech advocates. An independent review later found that staff had used “threatening and inappropriate” tactics to pressure leadership into removing the title, and recommended disciplinary action against those involved, according to earlier reporting in The Times.

After that review, National Librarian Amina Shah reversed course and reinstated the anthology. Now, the new open letter accuses senior leadership of creating a hostile environment for queer and trans staff and calls for the board to “urgently change course” and recommit to safety and inclusivity. Some of the signatories, the Daily Mail reports, are linked to organizations that receive public funding through Creative Scotland.

Co-editor Lucy Hunter Blackburn has condemned the letter as an “outrageous and unwarranted attack” on a major cultural institution, arguing that cultural leaders should be “arguing against censorship,” not lobbying for a book’s removal.

Free Speech, Safety, and Who Decides What We Read

The dispute lands amid a broader UK fight over how libraries handle gender-critical and trans-focused books. Titles such as Helen Joyce’s Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality and Shon Faye’s The Transgender Issue have become lightning rods in media debates, while public libraries and venues have previously cancelled events with writers like Julie Bindel over concerns about trans rights and safety, as detailed in public records.

For many readers, the Scottish controversy echoes ongoing battles over access to contested books worldwide. Recent US cases, from school restrictions to jail policies, have highlighted how quickly institutional decisions can limit which stories reach the public. Our own coverage of a trans-related book ban fight in Alabama and a New Mexico jail’s paper book ban shows how these conflicts now stretch from local libraries to national institutions.

At stake in Edinburgh is more than one anthology. The National Library of Scotland, which declined to comment on the latest letter, is effectively being asked to decide whether staff claims of emotional harm can outweigh public votes, donor concerns, and traditional library commitments to viewpoint diversity. As libraries everywhere reassess how they curate contested titles, readers will be watching to see whether this case becomes a model of open access—or another precedent for quietly disappearing uncomfortable books.