Prickly pair

Keepers are celebrating the birth of twin porcupines. The baby African crested porcupines were born on February 14 and are yet to be named. They were born at Woodlands Family Theme Park near Dartmouth in Devon. Despite only having two books to her name, Harper Lee was a towering figure in English and American literature.

Her most famous book was To Kill AMockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel published in 1960. Until the surprise appearance ofGoSetAWatchman in 2015, it was her sole publication.

To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of a rape accusation in the American Deep South, exploring issues of class and race and justice. The novel was loosely based on an incident which occurred near Lee’s home town of Monroeville, Alabamawhenshe was 10 years old.

It was hugely successful and became a classic of American literature, but Lee herself retreated from the limelight. However, over five decades later it was revealed that To Kill A Mockingbird was not Lee’s first workof fiction: in 1957, she had sent the manuscript for Go Set A Watchman to publishers.

Go Set AWatchman may have been written first, but it is set 20 years after the events of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Explaining in 2015 why she had set aside her first novel, Lee explained: “I was a first-time writer, so I did as I was told.”

In her statement, she said: “I hadn’t realised it had survived, so was surprised and delighted when my dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it.

“After muchthought and hesitation I shared it with a handful of people I trust and was pleased to hear that they considered it worthy of publication.”