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The Calamity Club

“You give a girl a taste of fresh air and then you take it away—she’ll grow fierce and wild to get it back.” 
 
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. 
 
Eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. 
 
Ever since her beloved mother failed to come home last Christmas Eve, she’s been one of the “unadoptable” big girls at the town’s orphanage where she fights each day to keep her wits sharp and her spirit unbowed. 
 
When she meets Birdie, a young woman set on confronting the socialite sister who believes she’s left her impoverished family behind, for the first time in a long while it seems someone else might care about Meg’s future. 
 
But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s charmed life is balanced precariously upon a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman haunted by loss who has been pushed to the brink with nothing left to lose. 
 
Drawn together by circumstance, they find unexpected kinship among a disreputable, determined band of women. But in a town steeped in hypocrisy, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences… 
 
Bold, heartwarming, and riotously funny, The Calamity Club is an unforgettable story of resilience and friendship, and a sisterhood of underestimated women who risk everything to take back control of their fates. 
_ 
 
PRAISE FOR THE HELP 
 
'Daring, vitally important and very courageous, I loved and admired The Help. Fantastic' MARIAN KEYES 
 
'Outstanding, immensely funny, very compelling, brilliant' Daily Telegraph 
 
'A laugh-out-loud, vociferously angry must-read' Marie Claire 
 
'Touching, disgraceful, funny. Highly recommended' Daily Mail

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. Her first novel, The Help, has sold over 1 million copies in the UK and 15 million copies worldwide.

“You give a girl a taste of fresh air and then you take it away—she’ll grow fierce and wild to get it back.” 
 
Oxford, Mississippi, 1933. 
 
Eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur has learned the hard way to rely on no one. 
 
Ever since her beloved mother failed to come home last Christmas Eve, she’s been one of the “unadoptable” big girls at the town’s orphanage where she fights each day to keep her wits sharp and her spirit unbowed. 
 
When she meets Birdie, a young woman set on confronting the socialite sister who believes she’s left her impoverished family behind, for the first time in a long while it seems someone else might care about Meg’s future. 
 
But as the Depression tightens its grip, Birdie discovers her sister’s charmed life is balanced precariously upon a tapestry of lies. Then, Birdie encounters Charlie, a woman haunted by loss who has been pushed to the brink with nothing left to lose. 
 
Drawn together by circumstance, they find unexpected kinship among a disreputable, determined band of women. But in a town steeped in hypocrisy, even the smallest act of defiance can have dangerous consequences… 
 
Bold, heartwarming, and riotously funny, The Calamity Club is an unforgettable story of resilience and friendship, and a sisterhood of underestimated women who risk everything to take back control of their fates.

Kathryn Stockett

The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable

Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. It's direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment

Outstanding, immensely funny, very compelling, brilliant

Daring, vitally important and very courageous, I loved and admired The Help. Fantastic

A laugh-out-loud, vociferously angry must-read

Touching, disgraceful, funny. Highly recommended

Remarkable, shocking, brave, brilliant

A compelling, great first novel, with soaring highs, poignant side stories and laugh-out-loud anecdotes. You'll be sorry to finish it

A winning story of courage and truth

An exciting and atmospheric story

A wise, poignant novel. You'll catch yourself cheering out loud

Lush, original and poignant. A wondrous novel set in the deep south told through the authentic voices of Aibileen, Minnie and Skeeter, three unforgettable women whose lives and points of view intersect vividly against a landscape of hopeful change in America. You will be swept away as they work, play and love during a time when possibilities for women were few but their dreams of the future were limitless. A glorious read.

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver... 
 
There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared. 
 
Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

The Help

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Praise for The Help

The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable

A big, warm girlfriend of a book

Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. It's direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment

The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable

A big, warm girlfriend of a book

Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. It's direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment

The other side of Gone with the Wind - and just as unputdownable

A big, warm girlfriend of a book

Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird has changed lives. It's direct descendent The Help has the same potential . . . an astonishing feat of accomplishment

Books by Kathryn Stockett

Articles featuring Kathryn Stockett

The must-read books of 2026

6 of our favourite author cameos in films – did you spot them?

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