Banned Books 2025

Banned Books Week UK returns from 5–11 October 2025. It’s a week to celebrate the books that have been challenged, removed or silenced, and to stand with the people who write, sell and share them. Join Kirklees Libraries and Index on Censorship in honouring the right to read freely and the courage it takes to speak up.

www.indexoncensorship.org/bannedbooksweek

Browse, download and read from our eAudio and eBook collection of Banned Books at: kirklees.overdrive.com/bannedbooks

Updated October 7, 2025
Kirklees Libraries
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings
Paper Book
A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on theNew York Timesbestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women,...
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
** THE SUNDAY TIMES NO. 1 BESTSELLER ** Go back to where it all began with the dystopian novel behind the award-winning TV series. 'The Handmaid's Tale changed me profoundly, hopefully for the better' Lee Child, Guardian
A clockwork orange
Burgess, Anthony
Paper Book
This book is gay
Dawson, James; Gerrell, Spike
Paper Book
A funny and pertinent book about being lesbian, bisexual, gay, queer, transgender or just curious - for everybody, no matter their gender or sexuality
The well of loneliness
Hall, Radclyffe
Paper Book
A powerful novel of love between women, THE WELL OF LONELINESS brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication in 1928, it then went on to become a classic bestseller. Stephen Gordon (named by a father desperate for a son) is not...
Kite Runner, The
Hosseini, Khaled
Paper Book
Twelve-year-old Amir is desperate to win the approval of his father and resolves to win the local kite-fighting tournament, to prove that he has the makings of a man. His loyal friend Hassan promises to help him - for he always helps Amir - but this is 1970s Afghanistan and Hassan is merely a low...
Brave new world
Huxley, Aldous
Paper Book
Welcome to New London. Everybody is happy here. INTRODUCED BY MARGARET ATWOOD Our perfect society achieves peace and stability by dispensing with monogamy, privacy, money, family and history itself. Now everyone belongs. You can be happy too. All you need to...
Metamorphosis and other stories
Kafka, Franz
Paper Book
'One of the few great and perfect works of poetic imagination written during this century' Elias Canetti WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ADAM THIRWELL One morning, Gregor Samsa wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. His family is understandably perturbed...
To kill a mockingbird
Lee, Harper
Paper Book
ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS EVER WRITTEN WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 'No one forgets this book' Independent 'One of the best first novels I remember ... uniquely unsentimental' Guardian 'There is humour as well as...
Beloved
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
Discover Toni Morrison's most iconic work in this Pulitzer-prize winning novel that exemplifies her powerful and important place in contemporary American literature. 'An American masterpiece' AS Byatt It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an...
Lolita
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich
Paper Book
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, fastidious college professor. He also likes little girls. And none more so than Lolita, who he'll do anything to possess. Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? ...Or is he all of these?
Animal farm : a fairy story
Orwell, George
Paper Book
When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. But gradually a cunning, ruthless élite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control...
All quiet on the western front
Remarque, Erich Maria
Paper Book
.0000000000This classic novel of the First World War is written in the first person by a young German soldier, Paul Bauer. Only eighteen when he is pressured by his family, friends and society to enlist and fight at the front, he enters the army with six school friends, each filled with optimistic...
Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone [25th Anniversary Ed.]
Rowling, J. K.
Ebook
The catcher in the rye
Salinger, J. D.
Paper Book
It's Christmas and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school. Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters - shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by...
Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
CHOSEN BY EMMA WATSON FOR 'OUR SHARED SHELF' FEMINIST BOOK CLUB The Story of a Childhood and The Story of a Return The intelligent and outspoken child of radical Marxists, and the great-grandaughter of Iran's last emperor, Satrapi bears witness to a childhood uniquely...
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Twain, Mark
Paper Book
Mark Twain's witty, satirical tale of childhood rebellion against hypocritical adult authority, the Penguin Classics edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is edited with a critical introduction by Peter Coveney. Mark Twain's story of a boy's journey down the Mississippi...
Slaughterhouse-Five
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Paper Book
Read Kurt Vonnegut's powerful masterpiece, which is as timely now as when it was first published. 'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York Times Book Review Billy Pilgrim - hapless barber's...
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book
'One of the most haunting books you could ever wish to read¿it is stunning - moving, exciting, and wonderful' Lenny Henry Set in the deep American south between the wars, this is the classic tale of Celie, a young poor black girl. Raped repeatedly by her father, she loses two children and...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.