A candid, haunting novel about the coming-of-age of a teenage girl. Full of decadent sexuality that would have given the censors a fit of the vapours.

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How did this subtle, refined war novel earn a ban? Perhaps faeces or war crimes were more offensive than barely-there sex.

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The Stud is more silly than sexy and it's not the finest example of a bonkbuster. Why on earth would such a trashy, ridiculous book be banned when the censor ignored serious literary sex?

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Holden Caulfield's swearing and sex talk has offended many since 1951. Now a modern classic, what explains the enduring appeal of this poor little rich kid story?

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Hoult was banned more often than any other Irish woman writer. Only a censor's beady eye can find filth in a novel about loneliness and dementia

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A love letter to Harlem and its music, this book offended all kinds of people. McKay's honesty about sex was brave and inflammatory

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A little book of folklore that became infamous. It was debated in parliament where nationalists denounced the elderly couple who were the subject of the book. But was the bull/cow story really that rude?

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I need to rant about Mary, one of many wronged women in 'The Ginger Man'. A confident woman with her own coalshed brought down by an abusive man.

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Even if the censors didn’t understand Beckett’s high-class smut, the lewd title was enough to get it banned. This short-story collection is stuffed with shit puns and blasphemy.

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The censor hated Keene’s pulp noir, banning his work many times. This taut thriller was full of violence but it was also a morality tale.

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