This is a review of the book 'The Help' by Kathryn Stockett. Set in 1960s America, the book explores the relationships between the black maids (known as the help) and their white lady bosses. The storyline is about a book that is being secretly written by a young white lady to promote the views of the maids. I learnt a lot reading this book. Not only were the maids there to look after the children between 8-6pm but also expected to clean the house and polish the silverware and cook for all the family. Whilst the fact that they are being used as slave labour is obvious, it is never mentioned by either party. The maids fear for their jobs as there ...  Read the complete review

I find it easy to motor through most books, but every now and then I like to read something with more depth and intensity. Following World Book Day and the release of the supposed 100 best books ever written, I have decided to try and make my way through the list, as I am doing with Empire's top 500 films of all time. I have only read a few from the list, and Kathryn Stockett's The Help was one on there. Not normally the sort of book I would read either in terms of style or subject. It's much more my wife's sort of book, but even she gave up on it about a third of the way through, and this had initially put me off. I soon realised though that you just have to ...  Read the complete review

I kept seeing this advertised but I didn't ever look into reading it because it didn't look like it would appeal to me and I hadn't heard from family or friends that it was a must read. However, when I heard they were making it into a film I decided it must be worth looking into so after reading the product description on Amazon I decided to give it a go even though it didn't sound like my usual light hearted chick-lit. ==Plot== The book is set in 1960's America in a town called Jackson. There was still segregation between black and whites at this time and a lot of white families had black maids working for them. First of all we meet Aibileen who ...  Read the complete review

Having read many glowing reviews about The Help I added it to my reading list and when I spotted it in the library I promptly checked it out. Set in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960's The Help gives a fictional account of the relationship between black maids and the white ladies that they work for. We learn how the maids are entrusted with the most important job of bringing up the children, but are scrutinised when polishing the silver. Set in the backdrop of the civil rights movement, these are turbulent times. There is general rest amongst the black community on how they are treated as second-class citizens, and being segregated in all parts ...  Read the complete review

"All my life I'd been told what to believe about politics, coloureds, being a girl. But with Constantine's thumb pressed in my hand, I realised I actually had a choice in what I could believe." I remember buying this in Waterstones about six months ago after reading the back and being intrigued by the subject matter and the beautiful writing style of the excerpt shown there. The Help is set in 1960's Mississippi, and so unsurprisingly revolves around the racial divide and de jure segregation of the southern states of America during this decade, as well a the slow changes which led to more integration. I studied the American Civil Rights ...  Read the complete review