To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Last updated: 25 October 2026

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The Pitch

An eight-year-old girl watches a rape trial in a small Alabama town, and the book is still funny. That combination is why To Kill a Mockingbird has stayed on reading lists for more than sixty years. Scout Finch is sharp, nosy and often wrong, so the reader sees the town's racism through someone who does not yet have words for it.

The novel won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Gregory Peck later won an Oscar for playing Atticus in the 1962 film. Penguin's 2025 cover puts sales at more than 42 million copies worldwide.

Buy from Bookshop.org, £9.49Buy from Amazon, £9.45

Why It Still Matters

Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, on 28 April 1926, so this year marks a hundred years since her birth. Hutchinson Heinemann published a centenary hardback in March 2026 to mark it. Meanwhile, Aaron Sorkin's stage adaptation toured the UK and Ireland from September 2025 and then returned to the West End this summer, at Wyndham's Theatre with Richard Coyle as Atticus.

It is also a book British readers argue about. It was a GCSE staple until the English Literature specification changed for courses starting in September 2015. Full Fact found it was never banned, but the new rules put a 19th-century novel and post-1914 British fiction first. As a result, it is no longer a default set text, so plenty of adults come to it for the first time on their own.

What It's About

Scout and her older brother Jem grow up in Maycomb, a small town in 1930s Alabama, with their widowed father Atticus. The first half follows their summers, their friend Dill, and their obsession with Boo Radley, the neighbour nobody ever sees.

Then Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The town turns on the family for it. The trial takes up the middle of the book, and the evidence clearly points away from Tom. Even so, the all-white jury convicts him, and the last chapters deal with what that does to the children.

The title comes from Atticus's advice about the children's air rifles: it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. A mockingbird does no harm, so killing one is pure cruelty, and the book returns to that idea with Tom Robinson and with Boo Radley.

Who Should Read It

It suits a reader of about fifteen or over who wants a classic that moves quickly. At 320 pages in most editions, it reads like a modern novel rather than a set text. However, it uses the racist language of its setting, including a slur that recurs, so parents buying it for a younger teenager should know that first.

It also suits an adult who studied it at school and remembers it as a story about a good lawyer. On a second read, the book has more to say about the town than about Atticus. Readers who want that argument can follow it into Go Set a Watchman, the earlier draft Lee published in 2015.

The Edition We Recommend

The novel is still in copyright in the UK, because Harper Lee died on 19 February 2016. All three editions below come from Penguin Random House imprints, so the choice is about size and price rather than translation or text. All prices below are from 18 October 2026.

The 2025 Penguin paperback: our pick

Penguin, 31 July 2025, 320 pages, ISBN 9781804958728. It measures 13cm by 20cm, a standard paperback size, and has a new cover of a child on a tyre swing. The type is larger than in the pocket edition, which makes it the easier one to read. It costs £9.49 on Bookshop.org and £9.45 on Amazon UK, against a published price of £9.99.

Buy it: Bookshop.org or Amazon UK

The Arrow paperback: the cheapest new copy

Arrow, 320 pages, ISBN 9780099549482. This is the pocket-sized 60th anniversary edition, 11cm wide, so it fits a coat pocket. It costs £8.54 on Bookshop.org and £8.35 on Amazon UK, against a published price of £8.99. The smaller type is the trade-off.

Buy it: Bookshop.org or Amazon UK

The centenary hardback: the one to give

Hutchinson Heinemann, 26 March 2026, 320 pages, ISBN 9781529155891. Penguin calls it the Centenary Edition, published for a hundred years since Harper Lee's birth. The cover shows the same tyre-swing image in grey and orange on a dark ground. It costs £20.90 on Bookshop.org and £16.39 on Amazon UK, against a published price of £22.

Buy it: Bookshop.org or Amazon UK

The ebook is £5.99 on Bookshop.org. For listening, the unabridged audiobook read by Sissy Spacek runs 12 hours 17 minutes. It is a straight reading of the novel rather than a dramatisation.

Quick Facts

Author	Harper Lee, born 28 April 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama, died 19 February 2016
First published	July 1960, by J. B. Lippincott in the US
Prize	Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, 1961
Setting	Maycomb, a fictional town in Alabama, in the 1930s
Narrator	Scout Finch, looking back on the years she was six to eight
Pages	320 in all three UK print editions on this page
Our pick	2025 Penguin paperback, ISBN 9781804958728, £9.49 on Bookshop.org
Cheapest new copy	Arrow pocket paperback, ISBN 9780099549482, £8.35 on Amazon UK
Hardback	Centenary Edition, Hutchinson Heinemann, ISBN 9781529155891, £22 published price
Audiobook	Unabridged, read by Sissy Spacek, 12 hours 17 minutes
Film	1962, directed by Robert Mulligan, with Gregory Peck as Atticus
Stage	Aaron Sorkin's adaptation, directed by Bartlett Sher, at Wyndham's Theatre from 25 June to 12 September 2026
UK copyright	In copyright until the end of 2086, 70 years after the author's death
Reader rating	4.26 out of 5 on Goodreads, from more than seven million ratings

Browse Our Full Collection

Our opinion of the book, including where it has dated, is in the To Kill a Mockingbird review. It is our Book of the Month for October 2026, and every pick in the series is on the Book of the Month hub. The rest of our classics shelf is in the greatest books of all time.

FAQs

How much is To Kill a Mockingbird in the UK?

The cheapest new copy is the Arrow pocket paperback, at £8.54 on Bookshop.org and £8.35 on Amazon UK. The 2025 Penguin paperback is £9.49 and £9.45, and the centenary hardback is £20.90 and £16.39. The ebook is £5.99. These are the prices as of 18 October 2026, and book prices move often.

Which edition of To Kill a Mockingbird should I buy?

The 2025 Penguin paperback, because it has larger type than the pocket Arrow edition for about a pound more. Buy the Arrow edition if you want the cheapest new copy or one that fits a pocket. The centenary hardback is the one to give as a present.

Is To Kill a Mockingbird suitable for teenagers?

Generally yes, from about fifteen. The trial concerns an accusation of rape, though nothing is described graphically. It also uses racist slurs of its 1930s setting throughout, so talk that through with a younger reader first.

Is To Kill a Mockingbird still taught at GCSE?

Less often than before. The English Literature GCSE that started in September 2015 asks for a 19th-century novel and British fiction from 1914 onwards, and American novels became optional extras. Exam boards and schools can still choose it, but OCR left it off its draft list in 2014.

What is Go Set a Watchman?

It is the novel Harper Lee wrote first and delivered to her publisher in 1957. Her editors asked her to rework it, and the rework became To Kill a Mockingbird. Go Set a Watchman was published on 14 July 2015 and shows an older Atticus with racist views.

Who reads the audiobook?

Sissy Spacek reads the unabridged audiobook, which runs 12 hours 17 minutes. Cornerstone published it in 2014, and it is a reading of the novel rather than a full-cast adaptation.

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Prices and stock last checked on Bookshop.org and Amazon UK on 18 October 2026.

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