Thirty-four years later, she published a classic of Southern literature, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” But just as his decency in Mockingbird did not make him a saint, a calm reading of this book can find him still a conservative and pragmatic but decent man who supports justice and free speech.Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama. There's no doubt Atticus speaks some unpleasant racist words, and that he once attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting. There are familiar flashback scenes from Mockingbird, such as the history of the Finch family estate, and the trial of Tom Robinson, who is unnamed and acquitted in this one-page summary of the case.Īs she once secretly watched her father in court, Jean Louise watches him now at a meeting of the segregationist Citizens' Council, and she flies into a rage of disillusionment. Harper Lee, who at 89 still lives in Monroeville, Alabama, created a clear-eyed portrait of her beloved but troubling home state. The new man in her life is Henry Clinton, a young lawyer mentored by Atticus but considered 'trash' and not good enough to marry Jean Louise. Her brother Jem has died in his 20s from the sudden heart attack that also killed their young mother. Lined up for sale: But how does the story of Go Set a Watchman fit with its famous predecessor? Credit: Rob Stothard It's not time to worry yet, as he would say. Atticus, the courageous idealist, is really a defender of segregation and a bigot? Well, yes and no. To the distress of Atticus' adoring daughter he appears to have slid into racism. At 72, he is almost crippled by rheumatoid arthritis – perhaps a symbol of atrophy and inflammation in the South as the civil rights movement sweeps in. She's the same independent, headstrong person she was as a child who idolised her widowed father, Atticus Finch, the wise, kind lawyer who defended a black man falsely convicted of rape the moral centre of Mockingbird.Ītticus has changed in some radical ways. Scout Finch, or Jean Louise as she is known at 26, is home from New York to visit her family in Maycomb, Alabama. The 'parent novel' that was written in the 1950s before To Kill a Mockingbird – and wisely put away – brings several shocks. But is that as terrible as it sounds? Is the Mockingbird dead? Go Set a Watchman, published on Tuesday, changes everything.

No teacher, no student can ever ignore the complicated history of the book and its characters. No one who reads To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time now can read it as we did before this week. To Kill a Mockingbird: our verdict on 1962 film.

Read the first chapter of Go Set A Watchman.

To kill a watchman