Children's writer Gillian Philip dropped after tweets supporting Rowling

Children's author Gillian Philip has said has been dropped by Working Partners after supporting J K Rowling on Twitter.

The writer was part of a team that produced books under the pen name Erin Hunter for Working Partners. However, she said she was removed after posting #IStandWithJKRowling in support of the Harry Potter author, whose own tweets have sparked accusations of transphobia.

Working Partners is a fiction packaging firm whose Erin Hunter books, which include the Warrior animal fantasy series, are released by HarperCollins. However, HarperCollins has no direct relationship or contract with the writers.

In a statement, Philip said: “I am disappointed that the hard work and professionalism I have brought to my work for HarperCollins and Working Partners, both in writing and public presenting, counted for nothing in the face of an abusive mob of anonymous Twitter trolls.

“It is troubling that my concerns about women’s and girls’ legal rights and spaces have been presented as 'transphobia', and that this accusation has been allowed to stand by my former employers.”

However, m.d. Chris Snowdon said the decision had been taken to drop Philip because she had associated the Erin Hunter name with her own personal views, not because of the views themselves.

He said: “Gillian Philip has worked as a freelance writer on two of our book series for children, both of which are published under the pen-name Erin Hunter. Erin Hunter is not a single person but a diverse team of creatives and writers.

“We recently became aware that Gillian Philip had associated the Erin Hunter pen-name with her personal views on Twitter, thus associating them with the whole collective.

“In light of this situation, the decision was taken no longer to work with Gillian Philip.

“The decision taken was not in direct response to the nature of Gillian's personally expressed views and it is regrettable that this has been misrepresented as such.”