Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (1949)

'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.'

Another unusual example of a book being banned in the United States for being 'pro-communist', to then ironically finding itself both banned and burned in Soviet Russia for its anti-communist views....

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1949)

'Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.'

Banned across schools in America due to 'profanity', Death of a Salesman won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play. A scathing indictment of the ultimate failure of the American dream, it is a harrowing work of brilliance that chastises the empty pursuit of wealth and success.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 1936

'Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.'

Whilst bed-ridden with a broken ankle in 1926, a young Atlanta journalist by the name of Margaret Mitchell started writing a novel that would go on to become Gone With the Wind (a book that would earn her the Pulitzer Prize). A story about war, starvation, rape, murder, heartbreak and slavery, yet above all it is a story of hope, with the character of Scarlett O’Hara unrelenting in her optimism and determination. Not without controversy, the book has been banned at various points and has been accused of whitewashing slavery.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

'Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.'

To Kill a Mockingbird is the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, remains the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism. With a long history with censorship, the book has been challenged for its depiction of violence, offensive language, and racism.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (1928)

'A woman has to live her life, or live to repent not having lived it.'

A watershed moment in the history of publishing, Penguin Books was the subject of a landmark obscenity trial under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 when they attempted to publish the full unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover in the 1960s. Penguin went on to win the case (and then sold 3 million copies....) resulting in a far greater degree of freedom for publishing in the United Kingdom. Prior to this the only copies available in England were heavily censored and abridged.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

'Don't let the bastards grind you down.'

Both heavily challenged and heavily celebrated, The Handmaid's Tale has been banned and restricted in schools across America. With a title inspired by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Atwood's terrifying dystopian nightmare is a powerful exploration of female oppression.

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)

'One general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.'

Science is no stranger to book banning, especially when it refutes the biblical history of man and man's creation. Arguably the most influential banned book, On the Origin of Species was removed from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Darwin had been a student and then across States and schools in the US.  In 1925 Tennessee passed a law stating that it couldn't be taught in classrooms.

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (1988)

'Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.'

In 1989 the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa instructing muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses. Numerous attempts on his life were made and Rushdie had to go into hiding with 24-hour armed guards. Alongside this there were a number of bookshop bombings in America. The book has been banned in India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Pakistan and of course Iran. The controversy stems in part from the book being inspired by the life of the Prophet Muhammad, with many Muslims accusing Rushdie of blasphemy.

The English writer Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa 'one of the most significant events in postwar literary history'.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)

'The thing is - fear can't hurt you any more than a dream.'

A brutal portrait of the savagery of humanity, The Lord of the Fliesstill ignites as much debate as when it was first published. Banned from numerous American schools over the years, according to the American Library Association, it is the eighth most frequently banned and challenged book in the States.

Salome by Oscar Wilde (1894)

'It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.'

After the play was banned from the London stage on the basis that it was illegal to depict characters from the Bible, Wilde’s Biblical tragedy Salome was originally published in France in 1893. The following year it was published in English, with Aubrey Beardsley’s striking illustrations.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1954)

'The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.'

A book about banning and burning books also found itself the subject of banning - meta banning you could say! It was banned in one school in America because one of the books that eventually gets banned and burned is the Bible. Alongside this it was banned in some schools for depictions of violence and bad language.