![Mockingbird Songs. By Wayne Flynt.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170626184837im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/2/5/u/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gwo2e1.png/1497227815192.jpg)
Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee
Wayne Flynt
William Heinemann, $22.99
When Alabama historian Wayne Flynt first met Harper Lee, he asked her to sign a copy of her book, to which she icily replied, "I only sign for children". It wasn't until a decade later that Flynt and Lee became friends, a friendship that continued until her death. Flynt gave the eulogy at her funeral, speaking – as she had requested – not about her but about To Kill a Mockingbird and the values it conveyed. While Lee shied away from attention and publicity, these chatty, warm and self-deprecating letters show that she let her guard down with those she trusted. They also testify to the burden of being the author of the 20th century's best-loved novel, which included having to contend with rumours that Truman Capote wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. "I was his oldest friend and I did something Truman could not forgive: I wrote a novel that sold."