‘Shoot all of the bluejays you desire, when you can strike ’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 basic novel – a dark man charged with the rape of the white young lady. Through the youthful 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 the town steeped in prejudice, assault and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. However the excess weight of history will only tolerate a lot.

To Eliminate a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story, an anti-racist novel, a historical play of the Great Depression and a sublime exemplory case of the Southern writing tradition. Out right now as an unabridged audiobook, narrated by Sissy Spacek.