pre-WWII British literature is knee^h^h^h^helbow deep in casual antisemitism. Graham Greene, Stella Gibbons, John Buchan... they all got in on the act.

Of course, there were plenty of writers who didn't fall into this trap, but I grew up reading my Dad's knackered Penguin paperbacks and hit this kind of thing often enough to find it unsurprising if endlessly gross.

I don't really buy the whole "let astray" thing. Either Chesterton had rare penetration of thought, combined with half-witted bigotry that all his own, or you think he was so dim he couldn't identify stupid arguments put to him as an adult. You can't have credulous and analytic at the same time.