Duncan Wu

Fascist, anti-Semite and dupe: the dark side of G.K. Chesterton

Chesterton’s misplaced loyalty to his brother led him to adopt his anti-Semitic views, explains Richard Ingrams — but that doesn’t mitigate the problem

G.K. Chesterton. [Getty Images] 
issue 21 August 2021

The Sins of G.K. Chesterton demands our attention because, as Richard Ingrams notes in his introduction, the literature on this author is (with a few notable exceptions) horribly flawed — littered with misconstruction, omissions of fact and interpretive errors designed to present him as ‘an innocent, uncomplicated man, blessed with almost permanent happiness and having no experience of suffering — hence an ideal candidate for canonisation’.

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