'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 cha rged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finc h, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitude s to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town ste eped in prejudice, violence and 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 t he highly sensitive topic of racism in 1930s America with humour, warmth and com passion, making it widely recognised as one of the best books of the twentieth c entury and in American literature.