Graham Linehan accuses Jon Ronson of 'cowardice' over gender ideology row in response to new book

Father Ted creator Graham Linehan has accused journalist Jon Ronson of staying silent on transgender issues to protect his career, calling him a member of a "cowardly liberal class" who let friends be destroyed for speaking out. Ronson's new book, 'The Castle', includes a chapter analysing the pair's falling-out over gender ideology, examining what Ronson calls Linehan's "anger" and a "tremendous" psychological wound. Linehan, 58, says his lawyers will scrutinise the chapter but his instinct is not to sue. The row lays bare the bitter personal cost of the trans debate for those who stepped into it.

Linehan says Ronson and his circle stayed quiet to remain welcome on the "dinner party circuit", which would otherwise shut them out "like a nervous sphin...".

Ronson's book also reproduces a photograph of an aggressive hand gesture that Linehan once made, which Ronson says he found "particularly disturbing".

Linehan calls the chapter a "signed confession" and an indictment of all those who watched his career collapse without saying a word in his defence.