London: Britons are far from being prudes when it comes to salacious writing. They have the entire Victorian era to swear by. Using a questionable vowel in a four-letter word normally does not cause panic, unless it appears in a book for children.

Jacqueline Wilson has arrived at this literary truth the hard way.

One of Britain's best selling authors has been made to look foolish after a woman decided she will not have her grand-niece read Wilson's "My Sister Jodie" when she found that the four-letter word, twit, appears later in the text as twat.

A misprint or not, the woman's complaint has led the book's publishers, Random House, to remove the word from the next edition and superstore, Asda, to remove it from its shelves across the country.

It all began when Anne Dixon from County Durham bought a copy of the book as a gift for her great-niece Eve Coulson, aged 9.

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 'toffeenosed twit'," she said. "On the next page the word changed. I thought I was mistaken, but I saw to my shock it had been repeated twice again.

"I am not a prude. In fact, I am quite broadminded, but this is completely inappropriate for children. They should not have to be subjected to trash and vulgarity. I did not expect this from a well-respected author and do not want my young niece to have to see this obscene slang."

Dixon sent an e-mail to Dame Jacqueline but when she did not reply she complained to the Stanley branch of Asda, from which she had bought 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 Asda has now withdrawn the title from its stores nationwide until it is amended by Random House.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. According to Random House sources, she was unaware of the word's reference to the female genitalia. Her dictionary, The Times was told, listed it as meaning "a foolish or despicable person".

According to the Collins English dictionary, there are three meanings for the word twat: The female genitals, a girl or woman considered sexually active and "a foolish or despicable person (unknown origin)".

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary says twat means "vulva" often used in the "vulgar", its origin "unknown".

However, a dictionary for kids on the web, http://dictionary.kids.net.au/word/twat offers the meaning: "A man who is a stupid incompetent fool".

The mother of everything British, Encyclopaedia Britannica, has no results for the word on its web site at all. It tells you: "There are currently no full text results for your search 'twat'. Please check to see if you spelt your query correctly. Or, try a different or more general query term".

Twit, on the other hand, means "a silly person" or "fool" in all dictionaries.