Elizabeth Leefolt, one of Skeeter’s best friends – Skeeter interviews a number of the local maids, to find out what it’s really like to work as a maid in 1960s Mississippi. With the help of Aibileen Clark – a black, God-loving and church going maid who is currently working for Mrs.

After applying for a job in publishing in New York, she is encouraged by the editor to put forward an idea for a book, and, inspired by the treatment of the coloured help in both her own and her friends’ households, she begins to write. We meet Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a white socialite who, much to her mother’s annoyance, dreams of being a journalist while her socialite friends are getting married and having children. The Help is a poignant and powerful tale that deals with themes of race, prejudice and inequality in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. I bought a copy on the day that I discovered a beautiful Barnes & Noble within walking distance of my apartment, unable as I am to visit a bookshop and leave empty handed. Given its setting and subject it also made the perfect addition to my all American reading pile while living stateside. It’s not one that I can remember who it was that told me to read it, but when I was recently forced to leave it unchecked on a how well read are you quiz I knew it was time to get a copy. The Help is one of those books that has been on my reading list for a long while.

The help by kathryn stockett