Jacqueline Wilson in swear word mix up

Dame Jacqueline Wilson, the best-selling writer and children’s laureate, has been forced to remove a swear word – "twat" - from one of her books following a single complaint by the mother of one of her youthful fans. The humiliation – not to mention the cost to her publishers, Random House – is compounded by the fact that Wilson appears not have realised that the word has two meanings.

The word, which can double for 'twit' or be used to describe a part of the female genitalia, appeared in Wilson’s novel, My Sister Jodie. It was seen by Anne Dixon from Co Durham, who bought a copy of the book as a gift for her great-niece Eve Coulson, aged nine.

As a precaution - to make sure that the book was not too sad for Eve, not to check for obscenity - Dixon, 55, decided to read it herself. "I got to the page where the reference was made to a 'toffee-nosed twit',” she said. "On the next page the word changed [to twat]. I thought I was mistaken, but I saw to my shock it had been repeated twice again."

Dixon sent an e-mail to Dame Jacqueline but when she did not reply she complained to the branch of Asda where she brought the book. Asda has now withdrawn the title from its stores nationwide until it is amended by Random House.

Perhaps the reason for Dame Jacqueline’s failure to reply was sheer embarrassment. Sources at Random House claim she was unaware of the word’s other meaning. If so, she is in good company. The poet Robert Browning included it in his dramatic poem Pippa Passes (1841), under the mistaken impression that it meant some kind of nun’s headwear: "The owls and bats/ Cowls and twats/ Monks and nuns/ In a cloister’s moods." The popular theory is that Browning was misled by a scurrilous poem of 1660, which included the couplet: “They'd talk't of his having a Cardinall's Hat/ They'd send him as soon an Old Nun's Twat."