Roald Dahl's family issue apology over author's anti-Semitism

Roald Dahl's family apologises for his anti-Semitic comments made during interviews over 30 years ago, the Sunday Times has reported.

Back in 1983, in an interview with the New Statesman, Dahl said that there was "a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity". Despite acknowledging, seven years after the interview, that his comments had been anti-semitic, Dahl refused to apologise to the Jewish community.

The family and the Roald Dahl Story Company "deeply apologise" for the deceased Welsh author's "prejudiced remarks" and added that the comments were "in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories".

Their online statement said: "We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words."

The apology, published in an undated and low-profile part on Dahl's official website, was criticised by the Campaign Against Antisemitism as "disappointing".

They said that the family had waited nearly 30 years to "make an apology".

They added: "The apology should have come much sooner and been published less obscurely, but the fact that it has come at all - after so long - is an encouraging sign that Dahl's racism has been acknowledged even by those who profit from his creative works."