Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing

The biggest cracker in crime-fighting won’t be Caucasian in a new TV adaptation – which might mean she’ll also acquire a personality

One summer 15 years ago, I went on a book binge of unprecedented gluttony: I had discovered serialised fiction. A family friend had dug out a huge box of tatty, mouldy Trixie Belden detective novels that I gorged upon at a rate of two a day. When the back catalogue of Belden was exhausted, I returned to Enid Blyton and gobbled down Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Adventure series, then started on the Hardy Boys. My parents viewed this wild bender with happy bemusement and silently thanked the powers above for libraries.

Then I was given Nancy Drew: and I hated her. In my first foray (The Clue of the Leaning Chimney), Nancy was pleasant and inoffensive; offensively so. She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her. She had none of Trixie’s grump or boisterous clumsiness or the Famous Five’s British charm: Nancy was so devoid of flaws that she was devoid of personality. As a podgy Australian 10-year-old, all this perfection was very jarring; after 12 or so Nancy Drews, I tossed her out and read something else.

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