J K Rowling has achieved almost total victory over the trans lobby

It’s not easy being right these days, especially when it’s a view that infuriates the woke as much as J K Rowling has with her insistence on the biological basis of sex. But the Harry Potter creator has guts and strength and she hasn’t budged – not through years of the most heinous threats and abuse – and now, at last, she seems to have won.

A play set to debut at the Edinburgh Fringe has been seeking to cast women for parts. The initial working title: TERF C---. Terf, of course, stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist”, a mouthful that could only have taken off in today’s deranged, diversity-obsessed cultural sphere.

But the casting has not been going well, with 90 actresses refusing to take roles as either Rowling or Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Potter blockbusters. It’s not surprising: many people have found the attacks on Rowling deeply distasteful.

Barry Church-Woods, the creative producer of the play, told The Telegraph of his casting travails. “I’ve been generally surprised by how difficult it has been for us to recruit the female cast in particular. It’s a well-paid gig meeting industry standards and the script is terrific.”

That, of course, is a matter of opinion. I can’t say that I am personally enthralled by the prospect of viewing a fictional intervention staged for Rowling by Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe, presumably attempting to save Rowling from her woke-unfriendly views about gender.

In my opinion, the play has simply misread the room. J K Rowling’s victory over the trans lobby has been almost total. A story about her courage, and how she won out despite the way the stars she made abandoned her, might have had better luck.