One of the all time classics and quite rightly so! This tale of racism, in the post-depression, deep south, is so much more than that, it is about prejudices of all kinds, and the innocence of youth, the love between families and much much more. Atticus Finch still remains one of the most stalwart and admirable characters in modern literature and Scout, his daughter, one of the most lovable.
July 2009 Guest Editor Louise Wener on To Kill a Mockingbirdby HARPER LEE Still one of my favourite books of all time. I read it first at school for an English exam and, like a lot of students, I was resistant to studying anything that was forced on me. I only appreciated how wonderful it is when I read it again as an adult and once more when I became a published author. What I love about it, aside from the fantastic story and the way the father daughter relationship is so beautifully portrayed, is how vivid and real the characters are. There is nothing wasted, nothing out of step or out of place. Every single character, even the incidental ones, sing with truth and are expertly drawn.
'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.
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.
