Sally Rooney's Books Withdrawn From Sale in Britain Over Palestine Action Support

Sally Rooney's books will no longer be supplied for sale in Britain, her publisher Faber said on Wednesday, October 14. Faber and the Irish novelist agreed the step together after she said she plans to use her royalties to support Palestine Action, the direct action group Britain banned as a terrorist organisation in 2025.

Faber said current British law leaves it unable to pass Rooney's UK earnings to her. It called selling a writer's work without paying her an unconscionable situation, and said it would keep selling her books in other countries.

What changes in shops

Ebook editions have already come off British sales platforms. Print copies that are already on shop shelves can still be sold. Waterstones confirmed that Faber had told booksellers there were no restrictions on selling existing stock. What stops is new supply, in any format.

Her position

Rooney, 35, gave her account in a statement to BBC News. She said Palestine Action is not a banned group in the Republic of Ireland, where she lives, and that she wrote an opinion piece in the Irish Times in August 2025 setting out her intention to go on supporting it. Fulfilling her British publishing contracts could now amount to a serious criminal offence, she said. She added that she had been honest with the public about her beliefs and intentions and was wholly prepared to accept the consequences.

In September 2025 she cancelled a planned trip to London to collect the Sky Arts Award for literature, citing concern that she could be arrested over her support for the group.

She had already warned that this day could come. In a witness statement to the High Court in London, filed in support of a legal challenge to the ban, she said her plans could lead to her books being withdrawn from sale in Britain.

The ban behind it

Palestine Action was proscribed on July 5, 2025, shortly after a break in at the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton in June 2025, which the group targeted over Israel linked defence work. Its co founder, Huda Ammori, challenged the ban. The High Court ruled in her favour in February, the Court of Appeal overturned that ruling in June, and the Supreme Court is due to hear an appeal next month. Reuters reported that more than 3,000 people have been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, a ban that civil liberties groups have criticised.

Rooney has sold more than six million books worldwide, about 2.3 million of them in Britain, according to NielsenIQ BookData. Her novels are Conversations With Friends, Normal People, Beautiful World, Where Are You and Intermezzo. The first two were adapted for television, and Normal People made household names of its leads. Those sales now continue everywhere except the country where her publisher is based.