' 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 & Jem Finch Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race & class in the Deep South of the 1930s The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice violence & 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 & a sublime example of the Southern writing tradition