What better time to revisit the lessons and impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird than while we wait for Harper Lee’s new novel, Go Set a Watchman – coming out this Tuesday, in case you missed it. Here is a selection of our readers’ memories and stories about the classic – you can see them all, and contribute your own, here.

The man on the train understood

“I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird on the train en route to a university open day. I got to the scene where Atticus walks out of the courtroom, and Scout is told to stand up along with the rest of the public gallery, and I broke down in tears. I must have looked an absolute sight, because the man in a business suit opposite me asked me if I was all right. I held up To Kill a Mockingbird. He smiled, gave me a tissue and said ‘I understand.’” By victoriaf1991

Growing up with very conservative parents, suddenly a whole new world opened up to me CornwallJo

The first time I felt grown up

“To Kill a Mockingbird was the first book I can remember reading and actually comprehending. The whole time I was reading it, I just felt so grown up. The emotions it envoked in me were not what I was used to in my everyday life as a child. I was sad, and outraged. I formed actual opinions on things in this world that mattered.” By LP Maxa

Boo Radley’s Tavern

“I had been to Boo Radley’s several times but never made the connection until I found the name in the second paragraph of To Kill a Mockingbird. Funny thing, none of the servers ever mentioned it. I guess, they thought everyone knew!” By PullandKick74

My favourite novel to teach in high school English

“I first read the novel when I was preparing to teach it twenty years ago. I have since then taught it and read it about that many times, and I confess that it’s my favourite novel of all time. It’s the ONLY novel I’ve read that can truly be described as “charming” and “groundbreaking” in the same sentence. Jean Louise’s descriptions of the town of Maycomb, her childhood desire to “make Boo Radley come out,” her innocent courage in front of the court house the night before the trial, and her love of her father are all elements of the novel that continue to engage the reader on every visit to the novel. It is a beautifully written story of courage. I never tire of meeting up with Scout, Jem, Dill, Cal, Boo Radley, and, of course, one of the greatest heroes in literature, Atticus Finch. I envy anyone who is opening its pages for the first time.” By walkerk

"It introduced me to American literature, with which I connected in a way I didn’t with British literature" MichaelRC

Suddenly I started to become the person I wanted to be

I read To Kill a Mockingbird at school. It changed my life – it taught me a fundamental lesson in life (that to understand someone, you have to walk around in their skin) and it introduced me to my literary hero in Atticus Finch. Growing up with very conservative parents, suddenly a whole new world opened up to me and I started to become the person I wanted to be. The book has guided me throughout my life, teaching me compassion and kindness to all. By CornwallJo

“One copy is not enough – school copy and anniversary edition,” shared by LM Chapman

I bawled my eyes out in class (and I was the teacher)

“I used to teach English in secondary schools, and taught To Kill a Mockingbird whenever I could. In particular, I adored Atticus – and still do – for his upholding of justice whatever the cost, but also because he is the perfect father.

The final pages of the book, where Atticus sits vigil through the night with Jem (‘He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning’), I had never been able to get through without crying. When I taught it, I made sure a pupil summarised the chapter for the class so I wouldn’t have to introduce that bit.

Then, one day when I was due to cover the final chapter with a class, the pupil who’d prepared it was ill. I did it myself, but when I reached that last paragraph I could feel myself starting to wobble. I stalled. I gritted my teeth. But in the end I just started crying.

It was mortifying – I still remember the gobsmacked faces of the students - but it was also testament to the power of literature, and the power of that book in particular – a novel you never get jaded about, a novel that never fails to move.” By grafter

I honor the book with the names of my babies (four-legged ones): two dogs named Scout and Gem and Boo, a kitten Sherry Myers

The book that taught me to read

“I had always struggled in school and reading was a chore. I read the words but never understood what they meant. The freshman year of high school I was assigned To Kill a Mockingbird. Something changed as I started to be drawn into this book. The characters became friends and neighbors. I was given a certain number of pages to read and exceeded the assignment. I was for the first time in my life reading for the love of the story. To this day, reading is a part of my life I am forever grateful to have discovered through this book. I honor the book with the names of my babies, four-legged ones, and live with two dogs named Scout and Gem (change of spelling for a change in sex, she is a girl) and the newest addition of Boo, a kitten.” By Sherry Myers

My way in to grown-up literature

“Along with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Of Mice and Men, the books of Truman Capote, Carson McCullers, William Faulkner and others, To Kill a Mockingbird introduced me to American literature, which I connected with in a way I didn’t with very much British literature. These authors (and many others that followed on from them) speak about what is universally human through ordinary lives.” By MichaelRC

Perfect prose – and my first full-on literary crush

“I first read this when I was 15, as a set text at school. As with many things at that age it consumed me, and I can still feel those pages between my fingers, the press of the wooden school chair on my legs, as our English teacher read to us. I fell in love, with Atticus of course, my first full-on literary crush, but also with the lush, evocative language which transported me so clearly to a time and place I never knew. 22 years since I first opened those pages, I still love to turn this description over in my mouth, it is just the most perfect prose:

Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”

By VitaM



Miss Maudie’s Lane Cake

“To Kill a Mockingbird was my favourite book as a teenager. I used to read it every summer in the roasting Australian sun, feeling an affinity with Jem, Scout and Dill – sweating through the summer with them. But despite the heat (and unlike my sister and I, who survived each January on a diet of raspberry ice-blocks), Maycomb residents are still baking cakes.

The classic Southern Lane Cake appears a couple of times in the book, generally as a welcome, and almost certainly to allow the baker to show off their baking finesse. Miss Maudie tells Scout that Miss Stephanie, who has been after her recipe for thirty years, will never learn her secrets. Sadly, this holds true for us too, so I’ve developed my own.” By Kate Young

I used to read it every summer in the roasting Australian sun, sweating through the summer with Jem, Scout and Dill Kate Young

“Maycomb welcomed Aunt Alexandra. Miss Maudie Atkinson baked a Lane Cake so loaded with shinny it made me tight…” Reader Kate Young baked this cake inspired by that passage . Find more of her literature-inspired recipes on this gallery

Teaching in Egypt

“This was a set book for a class of 13-year-old Egyptian children. They had trouble with the vocabulary at times, great fun with ‘cootie’ – one girl asked me the meaning of ‘flighty’. When I explained, she said, ‘You mean like me, Miss?’ But they definitely got the story. They empathised with most of the characters. We did the play that year too and it was a great hit. So much enthusiasm.” By chicamisr

Raised in the South, I wholeheartedly related

“Raised by parents from the South, I wholeheartedly related to the humor and idioms of this book when reading it for my English class in 8th grade. It was one of the first books that I can remember that sparked my interest in literature and that helped shape my writing style. Now, as an adult and English teacher myself, I seem to better understand its themes of perseverance, empathy, and compassion. The gritty realism of the book demonstrates the prevalent cultural norms of the time, and the steadfast fortitude of Atticus and Mrs. Maudie shows the existence of those who opposed such attitudes. There is also a great balance in Atticus’s character, and it is what makes him one of the greatest American literary heroes.” By Blake Downs