A SCOTS author has been dumped by a publisher after sharing her support for JK Rowling.
Gillian Philip, who is from Glasgow, backed the Harry Potter novelist on Twitter amid an ongoing row over transgender rights.
Rowling last month retweeted an article referring to “people who menstruate” and questioned why the story did not use the word “women”. She was subsequently accused of being transphobic.
READ MORE: JK Rowling: Harry Potter sites reject author's trans comments
Philip, who has penned a popular series of books for eight-to-12-year-olds, added the hashtag #IStandWithJKRowling to her Twitter handle.
Her move sparked a torrent of criticism online and emails to her employer Working Partners, a fiction packaging firm which devises series for publishing houses and commissions authors to write them.
Ms Philip had been one of several authors writing under the name Erin Hunter on popular animal fantasy series including Warrior Cats, Survivors and Bravelands. The publisher cut ties with her last week.
In a statement shared with the Daily Mail, Ms Philip said: "I am disappointed that the hard work and professional attitude I have brought to my work for HarperCollins and for Working Partners counted for nothing in the face of an abusive mob of anonymous Twitter trolls.
"It is concerning that my concerns about women’s legal rights and spaces have been presented as 'transphobia', and that this accusation has been allowed to stand by my former employers."
A spokesperson from Working Partners said: "Erin Hunter is not a single person but a diverse team of creatives and writers.
"We recently became aware that Gillian Philip had associated the Erin Hunter pen-name with her personal views on Twitter, thus associating them with the whole collective.
READ MORE: Proposed new law could make JK Rowling a criminal
"In light of this situation, the decision was taken to no longer work with Gillian Philip.
"The decision taken was not in direct response to the nature of Gillian’s personally expressed views."
HarperCollins UK distanced itself from the row, saying that it "does not have a contract with this author" – only an arrangement with Working Partners.
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