GUARDIAN.CO.UK
William and Kate 'Gypsy' spoof withdrawn from Tesco shelves
Will Kate's Big Fat Gypsy Wedding pulled following complaints from Romany Women's Union
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/23/william-kate-gypsy-spoof-tesco
BY ALISON FLOOD
Monday 23 May 2011
Tesco has removed all copies of a spoof book which imagines Prince William and Kate Middleton's "Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" from its shelves, following complaints that its humour is offensive to the Roma.
Will & Kate's Big Fat Gypsy Wedding plays with photos of the royals to show the new Duchess of Cambridge in a garish pink wedding dress, Prince Philip baring a tattoo and the Queen driving a horse and trap away from a crowd brandishing placards reading "Windsor Gypsies out!". "Hot to trot: Poor old Gran just wanted to sell them some lucky heather," reads the caption.
"This unique photo album tells: How Wills first 'grabbed' Kate at an Edinburgh fashion show: 'I had to get my hands on that see-through dress!'. Why Kate believes a Princess belongs in the caravan: 'It's not like Wills is going to be working either...' Of Prince Harry's love of bare-knuckle boxing: 'It's just rahlly traditional, like.' And what the Queen thinks of anti-royal/Gypsy prejudice: 'One is actually starting to get pi**ed off!'" says publisher Simon & Schuster in its description of the book, subtitled "Photos from our big day, like".
Published on 14 April, Will & Kate's Big Fat Gypsy Wedding has sold 3,244 copies to date, according to book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan.
Josephine Smith, president of the Romany Women's Union, said she contacted Tesco to "make them aware of how offensive this book is to us". Tesco said that it pulled the book from all its stores following the complaint. "We never want to cause any offence to our customers, so we removed it," said a spokesperson.
Simon & Schuster today released a statement in defence of the book. "Will & Kate's Big Fat Gypsy Wedding is a fun and gently humorous book that was published to coincide with the success of the Gypsy TV series and excitement and goodwill surrounding the royal Wedding."
But Smith, who is also planning to ask Amazon and Waterstone's to stop selling the title, which she believes "incites racial stereotyping and labelling", said this morning that "the stereotyping and labelling within this book is vile and distasteful".
"We are a community that love humour but where do we draw the line?" she said.Why would they think we will take this lying down?"
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