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2. Alabama's Race Relations

Shaken by encountering Calpurnia, Jean Louise has forgotten about Aunt Alexandra's coffee morning. Read by Fenella Woolgar.

Harper Lee's explosive second novel was finally published in 2015. Believed lost for decades after the publication of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', this book revisits much-loved characters, this time through adult eyes.

Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch travels from New York to Maycomb for her annual visit home.

It's always a relief to slip into the comfortable rhythms of the South; to spend time with her beloved father Atticus and rekindle her spiky relationship with Aunt Alexandra.

But mid-50s Alabama is not the same place where young Scout spent idyllic summers with brother Jem, and the 26-year old will be betrayed and have her trust shattered before she is able to become her own woman.

Distraught after learning that her father Atticus chairs Maycomb's white separatist group, a visit to the woman who raised her - the family's old housekeeper Calpurnia - has opened Jean Louise's eyes to the realities of race relations in her home state.

Read by Fenella Woolgar

Written by Harper Lee

Abridged by Robin Brooks

Produced by Eilidh McCreadie.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

1 hour, 10 minutes

On radio

Sun 10 May 202608:50

Broadcasts

  • Sun 23 Aug 201514:30
  • Mon 24 Aug 201502:30
  • Sun 10 May 202608:50
  • Sun 10 May 202613:50
  • Sun 10 May 202619:50
  • Mon 11 May 202603:50