The Frontline

Our attention has been drawn to an open letter in circulation seeking to put pressure on the National Library of Scotland to reverse its decision to restate the book we edited, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht, in its current Dear Library exhibition. 

It is an outrageous and unwarranted attack on a major national cultural institution – the extracts below give a flavour of the contents.

We are proud to have produced a best-selling book that has been described as “the most important book about Scottish politics to have been published in a generation.” It allowed many women to tell their politically and personally important stories. But more than that, it has given a much larger group, as readers, the chance to find their experience and perspective reflected on the shelves of the nation’s libraries and bookshops, and of course in the Dear Library exhibition itself.  We will continue to defend our authors and our readers against ill-judged, unreasonable criticism.

Freedom of speech is the single most essential condition for a vibrant culture.  Stifle the voices of people whose views you disagree with, or disapprove of, and you are left with a society where only a tiny, well-connected elite thrive. 

The signatories of this letter, who claim to be drawn from the ‘academic, heritage, arts, literary and cultural sectors’, should be the very people arguing against censorship. Instead, they try to justify it by claiming “inclusivity” for themselves. This is no way for Scotland’s cultural life to be conducted. 

We hope the Board and senior managers of the National Library of Scotland will see this for what it is, a form of McCarthyism which should not be indulged further, and has no place in contemporary Scotland.

Read the full story here

We are not publishing the letter text in full as it makes a number of bizarre and unsubstantiated claims about the effect of including the book in the exhibition, and unfounded and insulting comments about the book and its writers more generally, which are potentially damaging to ourselves and others. We do not wish to amplify that material. 

The organisers of the letter are not separately identified in the list of signatories, some of whom are no strangers to this sort of behaviour. We are choosing not to name the signatories here, on the assumption that they will be making their own names public.

Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn

Editors, The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht

25 November 2025

Letter extracts

“We condemn the series of decisions by the National Library’s board and senior leadership…

“The investigation pointed to the legal principle that, under the Equality Act 2010, individuals can be protected from being discriminated against for holding ‘gender critical’ views. Members of the public are of course entitled to hold and to express a wide range of views, however prejudicial. Furthermore, it falls within the mission of a copyright deposit library such as the National Library of Scotland to collect texts that readers might deem offensive. But that does not mean that a national institution has an obligation to amplify a viewpoint that advocates […] as part of a celebratory exhibition. Indeed, the Library has a legal obligation to avoid discrimination on the basis of the protected characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’.

“We are outraged that the Library’s response has led to the legitimation of [….] views as central to its centenary celebrations…

“We call upon the Library urgently to change course…”