Sally Rooney Palestine Action support forces her books off UK sale
Sally Rooney says her support for Palestine Action means she can no longer receive UK royalties, and her publisher Faber will stop supplying her books in the UK.
Sally Rooney Palestine Action support forces her books off UK sale
Sally Rooney's support for Palestine Action is forcing her books off sale in the UK. In a statement, the author of Normal People and Conversations With Friends said the fulfilment of contracts to publish her work in Britain could now amount to a serious criminal offence, and that Faber, with her full agreement, can no longer supply her work there. The move follows an opinion piece in August 2025 vowing to keep supporting the group, which is not banned in Ireland.
Why Rooney says the contracts became a criminal risk
Rooney said in her statement that she had made every effort to be honest about her beliefs. She wrote that, after the ban, "the fulfilment of contracts to publish my work in the UK could now constitute a serious criminal offence".
She added that she does not intend to step back from her position. "I am wholly prepared to accept the consequences," she said.
The author had already signalled the risk before this decision. After Palestine Action was proscribed, she said she would use her sales proceeds to support the group. Under the Terrorism Act, supporting a banned organisation is an offence, and she subsequently cancelled a trip to the UK to pick up an award, for fear of arrest.
Faber stops supplying her books in any format
Faber said UK legislation means it cannot pass on Rooney's UK earnings to her, and described that situation as unconscionable. In full agreement with the author, the publisher said: "we have taken the decision that we can no longer supply her works in the UK in any format". It will continue selling her books in other territories.
The Terrorism Act rules behind the decision
The legal mechanism Rooney and her publisher are responding to sits in the Terrorism Act. Supporting a banned organisation is itself an offence.
- Section 15 of the act makes it an offence to provide money knowing or suspecting it may be used for terrorism.
- That offence carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
- Rooney said last year that the independent producer behind the TV adaptations of her novels advised her that any payment to her would breach terrorism laws if it knew or suspected she was using the royalties to fund Palestine Action. Both series aired before the ban.
What is at stake for her readership and the ban's legal challenge
The withdrawal affects books with a large British readership, and Rooney has already warned in a high court statement supporting the legal challenge to the proscription that it could make her books disappear from UK stores and prevent publication of new works there.
- Normal People has sold more than 1m copies.
- Conversations With Friends and Beautiful World, Where Are You have each sold more than 500,000.
- The BBC adaptations of Normal People and Conversations With Friends drew a wide audience, with Normal People reaching 62.7m views and becoming the broadcaster's most-streamed series of 2020.
The proscription itself remains contested. More than 3,700 people are believed to have been arrested in the UK for alleged support of Palestine Action since the July ban, most for holding placards reading "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action".
About 2,500 people have been charged, none yet tried; most cases relate to section 13 of the Terrorism Act, which carries a maximum six-month jail term. The legal challenge will be heard by the supreme court next month, while Faber continues to sell Rooney's works in other territories but not in the UK.
