Infographic - The greatest number of assault charges relating to literary criticism

While literary criticism is well-known to be a high-stakes arena, but some people can take it too far.

©2014 James Mathurin

The greatest number of assault charges relating to literary criticism

The 35 members of the 'literary criticism group' Punching Dishonest Writers (PDW) were banned from meeting, 8 months after they were first established, and once 27 authors had been physically assaulted at their home addresses by the group. The group's leader Tennison Pentwick explained at a court hearing,

"The way we see it, you wouldn't lie to someone's face, 'cause if you lied to me and  I found out, obviously I'd smash your face in. Problem is, when you're writing a book, you don't expect someone to punch you, 'cause it's all just words, so you can put as many lies in as you want. So what, we do, we read books each, work out if they look like they're lying, and we find out where they live, go round and punch them."

 Tennison Pentwick attempts to leave court during his trial, having tripped up his barrister, stolen his wig, and run out of the courtroom. He was soon apprehended, and a charge of contempt was added to those he was already facing. Photo taken by Steve Punter

 Pentwick accepted that the bulk of the assaults were the result of a 'balls up' in the group's initial approach, and they had then come to realise that they should only apply their 'criticism' to authors whose writing were non-fiction.

 ©2010 James Mathurin