Voted by the reading public as the most popular title to be given away as part of World Book Night 2012.
You may have read this but it certainly deserves another read. It’s
the sort of book that becomes more profound with each reading. It is
quite simply brilliant, a tale of prejudices and injustice in small
town America which should be part of everyone’s collection.
To Kill a Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary edition Synopsis
'Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'. A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical drama of the Great Depression and a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition.
"A master class in how to write fictionalised memoir. Place, time and
character are all brilliantly put together to make a story that grips,
entertains and gently informs. I was completely at one with Scout in not
seeing the point of going to school. I could already read, so what else
would I ever need? I first read it when I was about twelve. As I grow
and re-read it, so my love and understanding of each character changes.
It has my favourite piece of dialogue ever. When Jem offers old Mrs Maud
a piece of gum, she gently refuses, with the words : ‘I won’t thank you
very much Jem Finch, I find it cleaves to my palette and renders me
speechless.’ Wonderful." - Sharon Dogar
Author
About Harper Lee
Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, a village that is still her home. She attended local schools and the University of Alabama. Before she started writing she lived in New York, where she worked in the reservations department of an international airline. She has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, two honorary degrees and various other literary awards. Her chief interests apart from writing are nineteenth-century literature and eighteenth-century music, watching politicians and cats, travelling and being alone. She died in February 2016.
