Stephen Neal, group publishing director, Taylor and Francis, defended the decision not to publish the offending illustrations. "Any publisher has the right to determine what is appropriate for their publishing platform and I felt these (images) were not appropriate. Our feeling was that they were not the sort of pictures Taylor and Francis felt comfortable with.
Obviously there is a degree of subjectivity on these issues. Ultimately we have to use our best judgement as to what is appropriate. We just did not feel that these were appropriate for Taylor and Francis. That is not passing any judgements . . . Our duty is to our shareholders and to our own beliefs. This is not censorship. We offered the author the opportunity to re-think the illustrations. We had no objection if she wished to seek another publisher. We would like to publish the book (without the illustrations)."