‘You should be ashamed’: Fans outraged that Millie Bobby Brown published her first novel, ‘The Nineteen Steps’, with lyrics she didn’t write

Publication of a debut novel Millie Bobby Brown, star Stranger Thingshas reignited the debate about books written by celebrities. nineteen stepsauthor Brown, inspired by his grandmother’s experience in the The 1943 Bethnal Green tube disasterthe author wrote Kathleen McGurl and published on Tuesday 12.09. But only Brown’s name appears on the cover of the book.

In response to a now-deleted tweet from Waterstones (UK and Europe) promoting the book, many Twitter users criticized Brown. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”wrote one. “Celebrity novels have ruined children’s literature, and now they’re doing it to adult fiction as well”.

On Tuesday, September 12, Brown posted a picture on Instagram of herself holding a book next to McGurl with the caption: ““I couldn’t do this without you!”. Below the post, Numerous comments criticized Brown, stating that the actor “takes credit”. and that McGurl’s name “should be on the cover.”

However, others came to Brown’s defense. “People like to attack people they just can’t tolerate. “Millie is young, beautiful, famous and rich,” he said Guard British writer Catherine Yardley, author of comedies and romances. According to her, much of the criticism came down to “jealousy”, “age discrimination” and “sexism”. “I can’t think of any man who has done the same thing and received that level of criticism,” he added.

Brown is not the first celebrity to come under fire for using ghostwriters.. Katie Price and Naomi Campbell are among the celebrities who have also used ghostwriters for their fiction books. Shannon Kyle, a ghostwriter who founded Ghostwriters Agency, agreed that ghostwriting “has been around for a long, long time, since the days of Shakespeare.” Brown’s transparency about using ghostwriters was “refreshing,” Kyle added, and “doesn’t diminish her involvement, because ultimately it’s her family’s story, and it wouldn’t have happened without her.”

In a blog post in March, McGurl explained that they sent him “a lot of research that Millie and her family had already done and a lot of ideas”.. Brown and McGurl then had a “couple” of Zoom calls before McGurl wrote the first draft. Brown continued to send ideas to the writer via WhatsApp, and the book went through several drafts as the duo “refined the story”.

Other famous ghostwritten titles include Prince Harry’s memoir, Sparewritten by JR Moehringer. Harry “has been very open about his ghostwriter and their relationship, and that hasn’t slowed down book sales,” Kyle said. “The general public wants to be entertained by a book, they want to read a good story and ultimately, I don’t think they care who writes it.” (AND)