Jamie Harding, a charity worker who lives in Alabama, tweeted: 'Atticus Finch as a segregationist? It's like finding out Santa Claus beats his reindeer.' The revelation has left fans baffled and some inconsolable. Some declared their childhoods had been ruined by the news - with some saying they will refuse to read the new book by way of protest. The now 70-something Finch asks his daughter: 'Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?' His character was immortalised by Gregory Peck in the 1962 Oscar-winning movie of the novel.īut in the sequel, Finch is sensationally depicted as a racist 'bigot' who once attended a Ku Klux Klan meeting. The lawyer is viewed as a deeply moral figure for the way he stands up to the prevailing racist attitudes of the Deep South. In To Kill A Mockingbird Finch defends a black Alabamian villager, Tom Robinson, wrongly accused of raping a young white woman.ĭuring the trial, Atticus makes it clear Robinson is not guilty, but the jury convicts him anyway. The run-up to the book's release has been dogged by the controversy surrounding the character of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch.

Harper Lee is reported to have said that she is 'humbled and amazed' the book is to be published now, 55 years after she first submitted the manuscript to her publisher

Sequel of to kill a mockingbird