Nicholas Sparks, best-selling author of the Notebook, has been accused of racism, homophobia, and anti-semitism after allegedly endorsing school pupils who “sought to enact a ‘homo-caust’ against a group of gay students.”

According to The Guardian, Saul Benjamin, the former headmaster of a school founded and funded by Nicholas Sparks, has sued the author of discrimination in a 47-page complaint.

The complaint, filed on Thursday in the US district court for the eastern district of North Carolina, alleges that the “greatest fiction” Sparks created was that he is a supporter of diversity and inclusiveness.

“In reality, the non-fiction version of Defendant Sparks feels free, away from public view, to profess and endorse vulgar and discriminatory views about African-Americans, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (‘LGBT’) individuals, and individuals of non-Christian faiths.”

Mr Benjamin alleges that Sparks endorsed a group of students who “sought to enact a ‘homo-caust’ against a group of gay students.”

He also complained that Sparks “diagnosed” him with Alzheimer’s disease, harming his reputation in New Bern, North Carolina, where Sparks’ Epiphany School of Global Studies is located.

Sparks also allegedly expressed “disdain” for African Americans, and was “enraged” by Benjamin’s efforts to make the school more diverse.

Benjamin, who is of Jewish heritage and Quaker faith, also accuses Sparks of trapping him in a room for hours without access to a bathroom during a meeting which Benjamin claimed had been organised to “unlawfully remove” him from the school.

The other defendants include the Nicholas Sparks Foundation, the Epiphany school and three members of the school’s board of trustees, who Benjamin accuses of making similar discriminatory comments and acts.

The complaint asks for a monetary award for damages including “mental anguish and emotional distress.”