Writer: Give job back to Harlem shake librarian

A best-selling author today joined a campaign to reinstate an Oxford University librarian sacked for failing to stop students making a Harlem shake video.

Crime writer Val McDermid added her voice to criticism of St Hilda's College after Calypso Nash, 23, was fired when students recorded the dance craze clip in the college library and posted it on YouTube.

McDermid, 57, who went to the college, and is now an honorary fellow said she was "baffled"  by its response. The writer, whose novels inspired ITV crime drama Wire In The Blood, tweeted: "I’m baffled that my alma mater appears to have lost its sense of humour."

Poet Alan Brownjohn, who was at Merton College, Oxford, added: "It seems to me a pretty juvenile prank by the students but it’s too draconian for someone to lose their job because of it."

Students have launched a campaign to reinstate Miss Nash, a classics graduate from Teddington, who they say knew nothing about the dance. They have also requested the dean's £50 fines for those in the video be rescinded.

St Hilda’s College refused to comment.