On a wet Tuesday afternoon I was doomscrolling on Instagram when I saw a post that made something inside me snap. It was about the casting of Emerald Fennell’s new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Margot Robbie. Big name. Charli XCX soundtrack. Big hype. Jacob Elordi. Hugely predictable.

He and Timothée Chalamet seem to be on rotation for prestige projects. I was about to scroll on when the author added something I didn’t know: Heathcliff, she said, is repeatedly described in Emily Brontë’s book as dark-skinned and racially othered. His race and class drives the plot.

Even then I assumed it could be one of those internet pile-ons where nuance goes to die and directors are denied artistic licence by anyone with a ring light. So I did the only reasonable thing. I bought the book and read it in a day. The internet was right. By page two, I was irritated.

Heathcliff is described as “dark-skinned”.

By page 25 I was fuming, he’s referred to as an “it” (the dogs get more reverence). By page 35 I was spiralling. His origins are speculated to be “Gypsy”, “Lascar”, “castaway”. I read the entire goddamn book and his race and class are central to the story.

This isn’t subtext. It’s on the........

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