The lynching of Atticus Finch

Literary characters are not real people. But then again, neither is Kim Kardashian

Many years ago, I was at home in west Cork reading the Sunday newspapers over breakfast with my family. An image of a bespectacled boy wizard beamed out from the masthead of the broadsheet I had picked up.

My dad – who I hope would forgive me for revealing this nugget – looked up from his breakfast and gestured towards the picture. “Who is this Harry Potter person?” he asked in amazement. “He ...