The book written by Virginia Roberts Giuffre was a testimony of the alleged abuses committed by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and other influential men. She was vocal in claims for legal accountability for survivors of sexual abuse. Her book faced enormous obstacles before reaching readers, with legal teams in the US and the UK working tirelessly to build a defence robust enough to withstand potential court challenges.
In a video acceptance speech, Roberts Giuffre’s co-writer Amy Wallace thanked the judges for recognising the book: [Roberts Giuffre] always wanted this book to reach as many people as possible, and she particularly wanted it to help other survivors of sexual abuse, not just those who suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell […] It’s sold more than a million copies around the world, but it’s recognition like this that really helps keep her story in front of readers, and also validates her story.
Sarah Wynn-Williams’s book also faced challenges: sharing her time at Facebook, the book makes allegations about the company’s internal culture and practices. Wynn-Williams has been unable to speak publicly about her book after Meta secured a ruling just before publication last fall, exposing her to a $50,000 fine every time she speaks about the claims in the book, stemming from a non-disclosure she signed with the company.
When receiving the prize, Wynn-Williams stated: We live in an age where web pages disappear, where a single politically aligned billionaire can spike a news story or delete a viral video. But once a book miraculously makes it out into the world—onto a shelf, into a library, into a home—it cannot be disappeared. With analogue tenacity, a book endures. […] “Books are not monuments. They are instructions. Not merely to record what happened to one person. But to change the way the reader sees the world. That is what we do. That is why we write, publish, and sell books. This is what one book can do—when it is written honestly enough, published bravely enough.
Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO of the U.K.-based Index on Censorship, which partners with The British Book Awards on the Freedom to Publish Award, remarked: We have two women and two books, and neither author can speak.
