Lassie Come-Home was the last book that made me cry. I was six years old when my mother first read it to me. When Lassie had to be sold, I am told I wept like a baby. Dogs. Truly man’s best friend.
Fast forward thirty-odd years and we now find ourselves in world where you only have to announce a new book and grown men and women burst into tears of offence. I am talking about the staff at Penguin Random House, who, when it was announced that the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson was releasing his new book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, spiralled into an apoplectic rage. The self-help guru’s latest book comes three years after his worldwide bestseller 12 Rules for Life.
According to Vice, a small cadre of enraged employees convened at a “townhall” meeting where they confronted management to discuss their concerns over the decision to publish the book by the Canadian hate monger.
