' Shoot all the Bluejays you want if you can hit 'em but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.' Lawyer Atticus Finch gives this 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...A benchmark of classic American literature To Kill A Mockingbird approaches the highly sensitive topic of racism in 1930s America with humour warmth & compassion making it widely recognised as one of the best books of the twentieth century & in American literature.