By Leigh Andrews

Those of you who have read the book won’t need a recap on the storyline, but those of you who have only seen bits of the movie trailer here and there might appreciate a bit more information. The story is set in Jackson Mississippi in 1962. Fascinating? Tick. Guilt-inducing? Also tick. While we might have no direct link to America’s South in the early Sixties, there are lots of commonalities to Apartheid-era South Africa. The black maids are trusted to keep house and raise children for the wealthy white couples they work for – even if the wives stay home all day playing bridge and entertaining friends. The children, passed on to the ‘help’, often get confused and think of their maids as their real moms. Ringing any bells?

The story centres around Eugenia ‘Skeeter’ Phelan, a fresh young journalist living in the town with her family. She’s not altogether happy with the status quo but is only pushed to action when her friend, Hilly Holbrook, insists that she include a note in the women’s league newsletter about her new ‘home help initiative’ – a plan to build separate toilets for the help to use. Skeeter puts a slightly amended version of the note in the newsletter, with hilarious results.

With the help of Aibileen, the maid of Skeeter’s friend Elizabeth, Skeeter starts writing about what it’s like to be ‘the help’, promising to keep all sources and the identity of the real place it is set in anonymous. With much convincing from Aibileen’s side, she eventually gets hold of 12 different maids who share the often unexpected and generally shocking stories of how they are treated. When the book is finally published, the Jackson locals try to guess who is described in each chapter ... which brings the plot to its head.

I won’t give any twists away, but this is a thoroughly engrossing read, you won’t want to put it down. There’s a great deal of family dynamics, lost love and support in this book. It’s a riveting read.

The Help is published by Penguin.