"SORRY' JAMIE'S BOOK IS COOKED

Kids' title withdrawn after backlash over storyline

- ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD

JAMIE Oliver says he is "devastated" to have offended First Nation Australians with a children's book he has withdrawn from sale.

The TV chef apologised for the subplot in Billy and the Epic Escape, which was criticised for being and damaging disrespectful because of a storyline featuring an indigenous child who is captured by a villain.

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Corporation (Natsiec) blasted the book, which tells the story of a girl living in foster care, for contributing to the "erasure, trivialisation and stereotyping of First Nations peoples and experiences".