Over the past few years diversity in publishing has become a hotly debated topic, the complaint being that the industry is still ‘hideously’ white, middle-class and predominately heterosexual.
In the early Fifties people didn't talk about diversity as we understand it, but many of them recognised that post war fiction failed to reflect the age of the common man. Evelyn Waugh might grumble about ‘the sergeants’ taking over, but he forgot about Parnassus. That was still off limits to other ranks.
No wonder a young provincial scribbler like Malcolm Bradbury experienced ‘raging bitterness’ on being