Now for the elephant in the room. I wasn't going to discuss these but I will before anyone asks me "what do you think of...?"

Enid Blyton, Hugh Lofting (Dolittle) and "Little Black Sambo". When scholars blast these books it is an attack on the books and/or the writers, not on white people generally.

I say this because I get defensive borderline aggressive responses from some friends and acquaintances when I try to discuss them, and my scholarship is ignored...I don't know anything apparently

The most common response is "I read [insert racist children's book here] and (come on black people in the chorus) IT DIDN'T DO ME ANY HARM"

It wasn't supposed to do you any harm, and it didn't make you racist. It did reinforce racist stereotypes for those who are or were, and armed my classmates with slurs such as 'wog', 'nignog', 'golliwog' and worse (I went to primary school in the 1970s)

I have had the 'it didn't do me any harm' response so many times in the classroom, I could retire on the proceeds if I received £1 for each time

As an alternative to 'it didn't do me any harm' perhaps ask 'how does these books make you feel?' The fact that I feel confident in talking to you about it presupposes that I don't believe that you are racist and will be sympathetic

There are other books and writers for children too, but they are outside of my area of scholarship as the earliest era of interest to me is the last quarter of the 20th Century.

I did briefly study controversial texts when I studied children's literature for my Masters and I have read some academic scholarship on them

I am not going to say any more on this subject as I always fear the responses I will get, but that is my position.

Actually not so, I feel that I should be clearer on why I chose these books. The original "Dr Dolittle" published in 1922 contained a character called Prince Bumpo, who whitewashed himself so that he could be 'better'.

Blyton's books contain racist and classist stereotypes, the criminals are always 'foreign' or look so. The goblins are believed to be based upon anti-semitic ideas. Blyton is still published but in the Bowdlerised version. Ditto Lofting.