Starkey dropped by RCW over slavery comments

David Starkey, who has caused outrage by his comments on slavery, has been dropped by his literary agency Rogers, Coleridge & White (RCW). 

The historian claimed last week during an online appearance with right-wing commentator Darren Grimes that slavery was not genocide because there were “so many damn blacks”.

Peter Straus, m.d of RCW, confirmed Starkey had been dropped by the agency on 2nd July after his “unacceptable” comments.

He said: “David Starkey was a long-standing client of Peter Robinson’s until Peter's retirement from RCW last year. In light of David Starkey’s recent much-publicised comments, I can confirm that the agency no longer represents him.”

Last week HarperCollins branded the historian's remarks “abhorrent”, saying it would no longer work with him and review its backlist. Hodder & Stoughton and Vintage also cut ties with the author.

Starkey, who has also lost a string of university positions, issued an “unreserved” apology yesterday (6th July), saying he had "paid a heavy price for one offensive word with the loss of every distinction and honour acquired in a long career".

Speaking about the phrase “so many damn blacks”, he said: “It was intended to emphasise, in hindsight with awful clumsiness, the numbers who survived the horrors of the slave trade. Instead, it came across as a term of racial abuse.

"This, in the present atmosphere, where passions are high and feelings raw, was deplorably inflammatory. It was a bad mistake."

Starkey continued: “I am very sorry for it and I apologise unreservedly for the offence it caused.

"Moreover, this misunderstanding of my words in no way reflects my views or practice on race.

"I have lived and worked happily and without conflict in multicultural London for almost 50 years and I spent much of the podcast discussing bi-culturalism as a key to the success of Britain's multicultural society."