I stand corrected regarding the matter of editors, and do apologise if I offended you with my comments, lizarfau. And the reason why I'm replying months later is that I never actually saw the post until now.
Perhaps instead of "editor", I should say "uptight publishing executive". However, I still stand by what I said about wanting to read what the author wrote (excepting spelling and grammatical errors, of course, and perhaps obvious racist language). What Hodder is currently doing to the Famous Five books is certainly a peeve of mine right now!
As for references to corporal punishment, I was never all that bothered by them, possibly because I was spanked myself as a wee lad sometimes, and possibly because I had (and still do have) a certain ... fascination with spanking, particularly when a female is the spanker. But moving on quickly from that, I have to say that I think the Just William books are probably the best example of how to handle the theme of corporal punishment if you're going to include it at all. It was pretty clear throughout the course of the series that William received, shall we say, painful chastisement quite regularly from his father. But this is only ever alluded to briefly, and usually with some humour. I think there are also examples of William and/or the Outlaws being caned by teachers, but again, the details are glossed over and the facts of the punishment dealt with in a short witty sentence or two. However, I am pretty sure that at least one of the William stories involves getting revenge on a schoolmaster who was a bit too free and easy with beatings.
Hopefully no uptight publishing executives will get their hands on the William books! But as I say, if you're going to touch on that theme at all, there are few better role models of how to handle it than Richmal Crompton.
). I think their arguments are silly, but these people are out there and very vocal. And they're vocal about many other things as well. I (and other editors I know) have often queried some of the things I've been asked to do when editing a book, but basically we are a long way down the pecking order and just have to do as we're told if we want to remain working (most editors are contractors). Saying the changes are the idea of some "uptight editor" is akin to blaming an individual bank teller for rising interest rates.
, so letters from the public are overwhelmingly in favour of no spanking references in children's books. (I'm talking about new books in this context; of course, people have written about changes to original text in previously published books - but no-one would be complaining about the lack of corporal punishment in books by contemporary authors.)
my Dad (once) gave me a crack over the ear in my teenage years, and 
Escalating violence on our streets and in our playgrounds, yes; 
