“It made me feel really angry when I heard this,” she added. “The whole issue of equality and diversity has been hijacked by white writers,” she said, arguing that prize shortlists were full of white writers whose work featured black characters. Lawrence, whose debut Orangeboy scooped the Waterstones children’s award for older children, said white writers’ fears of accusations of cultural appropriation if they created black of Asian characters was “a diversion”. Which was, I thought, disturbing and upsetting.” His publisher Walker Books has strenuously denied the claim. Describing the issue as “dangerous territory”, he said an editor told him that creating black characters who did not reflect an author’s own experience, was “by its very nature, artificial and possibly patronising. The controversy ignited last week when Horowitz claimed in a newspaper interview that he had been told it was inappropriate to include a black character. “Don’t pretend it’s political correctness gone mad.” “If you don’t feel confident or just don’t want to write black characters, just say so,” Aaronovitch tweeted. Writing on Twitter, he described as “bollocks” Horowitz’s claim that an editor told him that devising black characters could be “patronising” after he revealed plans to create a black as well as white protagonist in his latest children’s book. Aaronovitch, who has included black characters in his Rivers of London fantasy series, was alarmed by the news.
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