A NEWLY discovered novel by To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee is to be published in the UK.
The novel, Go Set a Watchman, which was only discovered last year, is being published in hardback and as an ebook by William Heinemann, the original UK publisher of To Kill a Mockingbird.
The book, which features the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird 20 years on, was actually written before Lee's multi-award winning novel but never published.
It was only discovered when the writer's lawyer found it in a secure location alongside an original typescript of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Lee said: "In the mid-1950s, I completed a novel called Go Set a Watchman. It features the character known as Scout as an adult woman and I thought it a pretty decent effort.
"My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout's childhood, persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout. I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told.
"I hadn't realized it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it.
"After much thought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication.
"I am humbled and amazed that this will now be published after all these years."
Go Set a Watchman, which will be released in July, is set during the mid-1950s when Scout returns to Maycomb from New York to visit her father Atticus and has to face both political and personal issues about the place where she grew up.
Tom Weldon, CEO of Penguin Random House, which has acquired the rights to the novel, said: "The story of this first book - both parent to To Kill a Mockingbird and rather wonderfully acting as its sequel - is fascinating.
"The publication of Go Set a Watchman will be a major event and millions of fans around the world will have the chance to reacquaint themselves with Scout, her father Atticus and the prejudices and claustrophobia of that small town in Alabama Harper Lee conjures so brilliantly."
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