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Shaw once wrote: 'England and America are two countries divided by a common language'. Regardless of the differences in word usage, spelling and editorial styles, US English and British English still share what is essentially a common language.
The divergences between the two are so insignificant that apart from some changes in word usage, a reader in one country would have no problem in understanding a body of text from another. Most major languages have dialects. For a spoken language to be considered a dialect, the differences must be far greater than that between British and US editorial styles.
The US publishers' habit of enforcing spelling and editorial practices of one country on works from another is disingenuous and ought to be recognised as what it is, vandalism. It goes against the intent of the authors and hide from the readers the variety and richness of modern English that such differences in these works represent.
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