“…Questions of representation were not foremost in my mind when I was writing the Magic or Madness trilogy. I’m a white girl who grew up in a predominately white country. Thinking about race and representation is something I have to make myself do because my life is not governed negatively by it as others’ lives are, like, say Prof Henry Louis Gates Jr.

“It was the response of my readers that got me thinking hard about representation. Now those questions are foremost when I write.”

Related: The Liar controversy: why does a book with a black lead character have an image of a white person on the cover?