News of Mockingbird sequel for Harper Lee draws concerns

The novel was published in 1960.

The announcement that Harper Lee is to revisit the characters of To Kill a Mockingbird has been greeted with delight and suspicion.

The true extent of the novelist's involvement in a project that will make a great deal of money for those around her was questioned. Those voicing their concern included Mia Farrow, the actress and campaigner, who wrote: "Is someone taking advantage of our national treasure, 88-year-old Harper Lee?"

The press release from HarperCollins announcing the imminent publication of Go Set a Watchman featured a quotation from Lee in which she declared herself "humbled and amazed" that the book would see the light of day, 55 years after her previous novel.

Yet Lee's fitness to write or sanction such a statement, or to give her full consent to the publication, was called into question after her editor gave an interview in which he admitted that he had had no contact with her for several years.

A series of strokes in the past decade has left Lee partially deaf and blind, and living in a nursing home in Monroeville, Alabama.

Her long-standing editor at HarperCollins, Hugh Van Dusen, said all communication was conducted through Lee's lawyer, Tonja Carter.

The first he heard of the new book was on Monday. Mr Van Dusen said he was astonished. "If it has been edited, nobody's told me," he said. "I don't hear from [Lee]. There's no reason why I should, because we don't need to do anything. I write her notes now and then but I haven't heard anything back and I wouldn't expect to."

Asked if anyone at HarperCollins had spoken to Lee about the book, Mr Van Dusen replied: "I don't know, but I don't think so, only because she's very deaf and going blind. So it's difficult to give her a phone call, you know? I think we all do our dealing through her lawyer, Tonja."

Ms Carter is at the centre of the mystery surrounding the book, which is being published in a print run of two million copies. Lee is said to have written Go Set a Watchman in the mid-1950s, featuring an adult Scout visiting her father within the setting of the civil rights movement.

Her editor at the time had persuaded her to write about Scout as a young girl, and the original story was cast aside.

Lee's statement said her "dear friend and lawyer Tonja Carter" found the manuscript.

Mr Van Dusen said: "The version I was told was that the book was in either a safe-deposit box or a bank vault, and it was wrapped in a manuscript of To Kill a Mockingbird."

Ms Carter is a controversial figure, said to fiercely guard access to her client.