This World Book Day, let’s keep pushing for progress on diversity within the publishing industry

As a child the closest I came to seeing a character that looked like me was reading about Pocahontas. There’s been progress in recent years, but there’s still clearly a long way to go, writes Rabina Khan

Bernardine Evaristo topped 2020’s fiction list at the British Book Awards (Rex)

Today, as we celebrate World Book Day, it has made me reflect on the difference between children’s books when I was young and the books that are widely-available today.

In the late 1970s, books by Black and Asian authors were not provided to me at school, so I was unaware they existed. I never saw Black, Asian, or minority ethnic characters in books either.

The nearest I came to seeing a character with whom I could identify with was when our class read about Pocahontas. It had a profound effect on my life, not least because I was the only child of colour in our class at the time.