Writers and actors sign a New Statesman open letter urging the United Kingdom to amend its anti-terrorism legislation after Sally Rooney's books were withdrawn

21 October 2026

An open letter published on the cover of the New Statesman on 21 October 2026 urged the British government to amend the anti-terrorism legislation under which Palestine Action has been designated a terrorist organisation, and said the Irish novelist Sally Rooney's books must be available to the public. Its signatories include the actors Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Tilda Swinton, Susan Sarandon and Sharon Horgan, the broadcaster Gary Lineker, the director Lenny Abrahamson and the writers Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, Naomi Klein, Colm Toibin, Anne Enright, Anna Burns, J.M. Coetzee, Annie Ernaux, Anne Carson, Bernardine Evaristo, George Saunders, Jeanette Winterson, Irvine Welsh, William Boyd and William Dalrymple. The letter follows the announcement on 14 October 2026 by Rooney's publisher Faber and Faber that it would stop supplying her books for sale in the United Kingdom, because the legislation means it cannot pass on her United Kingdom earnings to her. Rooney has said that further publication of her work could constitute a serious criminal offence and that she is wholly prepared to accept the consequences. The United Kingdom Supreme Court is due to hear a case on the ban about two weeks after the letter.