Ridley has said that he was told that Faber had "objected to the play because of its cruelty to children" and that what he had written "had gone too far". This reasoning was felt to be somewhat ironic as Faber’s decision to refuse publication was relayed to Ridley by phone whilst he was watching footage on his TV of the Beslan school siege, which claimed the lives of over 330 children. Ridley has stated that "The first comment that the editor at Faber said to me was, “I've got to tell you that several people here are seriously offended by this.” I have a thing about dialogue, so I remember. Those were her words. It was as if they'd all suddenly turned into a bunch of Cardinal Wolseys, deciding what was right and wrong. It's not their job to be moral arbiters; it's their job to publish. I think Faber realised they couldn't say this, so after a few weeks they decided to rephrase it as, 'It's a piece of writing that I do not admire.'" Ridley also states that "There was no discussion. I wasn't invited in to clarify my intentions. I sent them a letter saying I thought they had misread it, but they didn't want a discussion. Of course I'm upset, but it is not just an ego thing. If a publisher is saying, 'You've gone too far', what kind of message is that sending out to writers?"