Well … I was intrigued. Brilliant idea to meet Scout and Atticus 20 years on from THAT trial, and THOSE lessons about ‘standing inside another person’s shoes’ … Oh Atticus, everybody wants you to be their dad.

At this point though, I can’t resist inserting a silly joke I saw the other day did along the lines of:

Never complain about someone until you have walked a good long mile in their shoes. Then, it’s fine  – because you are a good mile away from them plus you have their shoes! Ho, Ho, Ho …

But, jokes aside … I found this sequel to be, well, not as good as To Kill A Mockingbird but worth sticking with. What is fascinating is that it was in fact written before To Kill A Mockingbird. There is an allusion to the Trial of Tom Robinson and apparently Harper Lee was advised that this might be a better central theme for the story. And brilliant advice that turned out to be – a child’s view of events heightened the prejudice Lee wanted to highlight so fantastically well.

Go Set A Watchman sees Scout returning to her home town of Maycomb as a young woman, educated and now a lawyer herself practising in New York. Times have moved on, but the journey towards establishing equal rights between the black and white communities is a complicated one. It is interesting to see how things play out in the novel in this respect.

What I found more compelling though, was the emotional journey experienced by Scout in terms of her relationship with her father and family. It is a tale of disillusionment and passions run high.

Go Set A Watchman is no doubt an interesting and engaging read on a historical and emotional level. I wonder what it would be like to read if you haven’t read To Kill A Mockingbird? Better or worse, I don’t know. I think really, you have to appreciate the incredible relationship between Scout and Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird to feel the full force of what goes on between them in Go Set A Watchman.

Go on, give it a whirl. All comments appreciated …