Jeanette Winterson, the award winning author best known for her classic novel Oranges are not the Only Fruit, caused partial outrage on Twitter after posting photographs of a rabbit that she had killed, skinned and cooked. Winterson told followers that the rabbit had eaten her parsley, saying, “I will now eat the rabbit”

Jeanette WintersonJeanette Winterson killed a rabbit. 

The author – who countered her critics by saying she had tapped and killed the rabbit humanely – added, “Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit.”

One critic, Jacqueline Looker, said: “Before I unfollow you, you make me sick. I will never again read a word you write. Rest in peace, little rabbit.” Winterson replied: “Do you only read vegetarians? If not, why is farmed meat fine but personally trapped disgusting? Think about it.”

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The author found some support, with Hazel James writing, “Isn’t that the balance of nature? At least it’s fresh, not like the frozen tasteless ones butchers sell.” Keith Morton simply: “Which wine did you have with it? Looks lovely”.

After moving to London in the early 1980’s, Winterson’s first novel, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, won the 1985 Whitbread Prize for a first novel. It was subsequently adapted into a BAFTA winning television series. Winterson also won the 1987 John Llewllyn Rhys Prize for The Passion, a novel set in Napoleonic Europe.