Before I go on to discuss this week’s book,
A House Like a Lotus, a quick point about the Madeleine L’Engle reread in regards to racism, homophobia and other issues.
If I have seemed harsh on L’Engle on these matters and I may well have been it’s because I am talking about
Madeleine L’Engle, a writer who in her earlier books was arguing for inclusivity, tolerance and the careful use of language to describe minority groups, and an author who, as others have mentioned, was renowned for expanding the horizons of young readers. I am not particularly surprised when an Edith Nesbit, who was completely unconcerned with racial equality, drops a stereotypical image or uses the n-word in her books.