Writer and comedian Dawn French has said that authors should be free to write about characters from different racial backgrounds from their own.
French's new fictional novel, Because of You, reportedly features several main characters of different ethnicities.
During an interview on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One French said it would be a "very sorry state of affairs if we couldn't imagine anyone we liked when you were writing".
She added: "If we started to police who you can write in fiction, I think that is a hiding to nowhere, really."
French, who was previously married to fellow comedian Lenny Henry, said her "lived experience is in a multicultural family, so this is the norm for me, to write any colour I like".
She added that "if you are a black person you can write with a more authentic black voice... but I'm allowed to imagine anybody I like".
French, 63, added that she frequently saw her ex-husband being subjected to racism.
"I witnessed it coming at him all the time, mostly in rather insidious ways that you can't quite grasp and you think 'Oh, that was a quite uncomfortable moment that happened just there in that cab, or in that boardroom, or in that meeting'.
"So, quite often I reflected back on it and thought 'Yeah, I was witness to something there' and I think that is what I really think we are waking up to now, is the kind of racism that is around us all the time."
