A library in Wembley celebrated the launch of Harper Lee’s forgotten novel by staging a performance of To Kill A Mockingbird.

Preston Community Library (PCL) in Carlton Avenue East took on the form of both theatre and cinema on Monday night as Harrow Scottish Society joined library members to put on an unrehearsed performance of the novel’s famous trial scene.

The event was to mark the sale of Go Set A Watchman, undiscovered for 57 years, predating Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning tale of the lawyer, Atticus Finch, who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in 1930’s Alabama.

Following the play the PCL Choir sang gospel songs including Amazing Grace and Kumbaya before watching the film.

Geraldine Cooke, literary agent and library campaigner said: “It was a brilliant, terribly moving unrehearsed reading by members of PCL, local schools and Harrow Scottish Society.

“We wanted to mark the excitement across the whole country of Go Set A Watchman going on sale at midnight. We always mark big literary events and this is one of the great reading events of the decade.”