Fans Queue For Hours For Mockingbird Sequel

Harper Lee is as “happy as hell” about her new book which has gone on sale – with many talking about a “shocking” plot twist.

The follow-up to Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird has gone on sale – with many fans queuing up for hours to get their hands on a copy of the hotly anticipated book.

Bookshops opened at midnight to cope with the demand for Go Set A Watchman.

Despite this many fans have been left disillusioned by the book’s shocking plot twist.

The original 1960 classic was based on the lives of its central characters – Scout, her brother Jem and their lawyer father Atticus.

He risked his physical safety in the first book to defend a black man charged with raping a white woman.

His character was immortalised by Gregory Peck in the 1962 Oscar-winning movie of the novel.

But in Watchman, Atticus is a bigot who attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting and opposes desegregation.

The story, written in 1957, revolves around the now-adult Scout’s return to her native Alabama from New York to visit her father.

It had been claimed Lee was not involved in the decision to release a second novel.

However, her US publisher HarperCollins released a statement earlier this year quoting the author as saying “she is alive and kicking and happy as hell with the reactions” to Go Set A Watchman.

The book has been met with mixed reviews with some saying it is not as “polished” or “sharply written”.

Gaby Wood, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said: “There are some phrases in Go Set A Watchman that seem markedly Lee’s but she has not learned how to hide what she knows, and the book is weighed down with literary references.”

Robbie Millen, literary editor of the Times, suggested the work was “surprisingly provocative”.

He said: “Go Set A Watchman is not as polished nor as sharply written as its sister novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Nor is it as uplifting, moving or funny. It is, however, more edgy and thought provoking.”

source: skynews.com