While school library censorship is, so far, less widespread in the United Kingdom than in the United States, censors are gaining ground. In March 2026, news broke that a school in Manchester had ‘purged’ its library’s bookshelves and accused the school librarian of being a ‘safeguarding risk’ because she had included books on the shelves of which the school’s headteacher disapproved.
As is often the case in school library censorship, many of these books were about LGBTQ+ people or characters. This latest case also saw many books about racism and/or by authors of colour included, a facet of censorship that has so far been less common in the UK than in the US. With the school library’s shelves decimated, and the librarian’s career ruined as a result of the action–she had to quit her job due to stress, and the safeguarding accusation means she will be unable to find work in schools in the future–the Manchester case is a chilling new step in a worrying trend.
I spoke to one of the authors whose books were removed during the Manchester school library’s pur...
English (US)