Famously bearded children's author Philip Ardagh (the best-selling Eddie Dickens books) has until recently been a very visible (well, partly) presence on Facebook, regularly commenting on the status of friends, many of whom are also children's writers and illustrators.
Until he took it into his head to wish someone a happy wedding anniversary and then compounded the felony by wishing someone else a happy birthday. He received two warnings from Facebook about abusive behaviour and has now disappeared from the site.
All his posts have also been removed.
But Philip's friends have not taken this lying down; as well as petitioning Facebook to reinstate this harmless if bumbling giant, many of them have donned similar beards in protest (see the Book Maven, above).
But wait - could this all just be a cunning plan? Philip has a new book out - four in fact - called Grubtown Tales, published by Faber. Surely not even PA would stoop to PR that involved his Facebook friends making fools of themselves in photoshopped beards?
Christmas Crackers - Joan Lennon
1 day ago
your beard is particularly becoming, i have to say!
ReplyDeleteyou grew that very quickly - you were clean-shaven when I saw you in May!
ReplyDeleteI want to know what sort of fertilizer you used to achieve such magnificent growth so speedily! All my beard does is look distinguished which is really not on!
ReplyDeleteBeardyN
The fertiliser is called Candy Gourlay!
ReplyDeleteAh, I wondered how all of you had time to grow beards all of a sudden.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post, and even more excellent beard.
ReplyDeleteOh.... I'm going to have to practice my photoshopping ;-)>
ReplyDeleteWow, this seems to be true. Any previous comments he's made have been wiped away. How strange! Where is the petition? I'd like to sign...
ReplyDeleteho, ho
ReplyDelete'bumbling' ?
Tockla - just search Beardy Ardagh on Facebook, though I don't think it has the status of a petition. I'll check with Candy, who started the group.
ReplyDeleteThere is now a petition at this link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petitiononline.com/fbbbb47/petition.htm
Bring Back Beardy