I enjoyed “Home” enough that one day I expect I shall read Gilead, and discover more of the patriarch of the Broughtons. Jack remained a far more shadowy figure than his father, and I am not sure I felt this to be a story of the prodigal son so much as the youngest of the family and the way that families can almost seem to colude in pretences and secrets.

The stangest thing was that I could not shake off the idea which I had formed somehow that the Broughtons were a negro family! I know they are Presbyterians and that there are several references to their Scots ancestry, but for whatever reason I got it into my head they were negro and it stuck! Which was awkward when it came to Della of course, but even then I couldn’t shake that feeling.

I wonder if anyone else had that idea, or is it was only me?