The Author of ‘The Help’ Wrote a Second Novel. Yes, Following Up Was Daunting.

Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett
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The Author of ‘The Help’ Wrote a Second Novel. Yes, Following Up Was Daunting.

Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett

Fifteen years after her blockbuster novel “The Help” sparked conversation and criticism for its portrayal of the lives of Black maids in the South, Kathryn Stockett is publishing a new novel.
Set in 1933 in Oxford, Miss., “The Calamity Club” centers on a group of women whose lives intersect as they struggle to get by during the Depression. It will be published in April 2026 by the independent press Spiegel & Grau.
Anticipation for a follow-up from Stockett was high. When it was released in 2009, “The Help” caused a stir with its frank depiction of racial inequality. It went on to sell some 15 million copies, spent more than two years on the New York Times best-seller list, and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning movie.
In a video interview from her home outside of Natchez, Miss., Stockett admitted that writing a second novel in the long shadow of her debut was daunting.
“The pressure was definitely on,” she said. “The fear of failure, it really weighs on a writer.”
The novel also drew sharp criticism for its portrayal of Black characters and their speech, which some readers and critics found insensitive and offensive. Viola Davis, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the film, later said she regretted participating, adding that she felt the film failed to accurately capture the voices and lives of Black women.
In some ways, the debate over “The Help” foreshadowed the “own voices” movement in the literary world, which pushed for more diversity in literature from writers drawing on their own cultural backgrounds.
Stockett said that “The Help” would most likely not have found a publisher in today’s environment, but that she doesn’t regret the way she told the story.
“I doubt that ‘The Help’ would be published today, for the fact that a white woman was writing in the voice of a Black woman,” she said. “I did get a lot of criticism but it didn’t get under my skin, because it started conversations.”
“The Help” was inspired in part by Stockett’s relationship with a woman named Demetrie McLorn, who worked as a maid for her family and died when Stockett was a teenager.
The story, which takes place in Mississippi in the early 1960s, has multiple narrators: a Black woman named Aibileen who works as a nanny and housekeeper for white families, Aibileen’s outspoken friend Minny, and a young white woman, Skeeter, who is appalled by the racism she witnesses.
Stockett’s new novel, set in the segregated South, also engages with the issue of race, but not as directly, Stockett said.
“Race is always in the background,” she said. “It’s probably always going to be in the background of any book I write.”
Stockett first began working on a novel set in Depression-era Mississippi in 2013. She did extensive research into the era, learning about the Farm Act, child labor laws, the eugenics movement and the forced sterilization of women in prison, and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s economic policies.
The story is narrated by two white female characters: an 11-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage and a young woman from the Delta who has come to Oxford in hopes of helping her family through hard times.
In 2020, after writing some 800 pages, Stockett felt stuck, and almost abandoned the book. A friend who had read the manuscript connected her with Julie Grau, co-founder of Spiegel & Grau. They worked for years without a contract, and kept the project quiet. A few years later, they signed a deal. With its release next year, the book will be published simultaneously in Britain by Fig Tree and in Canada by Doubleday Canada.
“There’s something really precious about giving writers the time and the space to execute that follow up,” Grau said. “It was really remarkable and ideal to shield her from the glare.”
Stockett said she was so stunned by the success of her debut that she’s set aside any expectations about how “The Calamity Club” will be received.
“I can’t believe it happened then,” she said, “and I have no idea what's going to happen this time around either.”

 

The New York Times



'Hidden Treasure': Rare Gandhi Portrait Up for UK Sale

Caspar Leighton with a portrait by his great-aunt of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP
Caspar Leighton with a portrait by his great-aunt of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP
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'Hidden Treasure': Rare Gandhi Portrait Up for UK Sale

Caspar Leighton with a portrait by his great-aunt of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP
Caspar Leighton with a portrait by his great-aunt of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP

A rare oil painting of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, which is believed to have been damaged by a Hindu nationalist activist, is to be auctioned in London in July.

Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in India's history, led a non-violent movement against British rule and inspired similar resistance campaigns across the world.

He is the subject of tens of thousands of artworks, books and films.

But a 1931 painting by British-American artist Clare Leighton is believed to be the only oil portrait he sat for, according to the painter's family and Bonhams, where it will be auctioned online from July 7 to 15.

"Not only is this a rare work by Clare Leighton, who is mainly known for her wood engravings, it is also thought to be the only oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi which he sat for," said Rhyanon Demery, Bonhams Head of Sale for Travel and Exploration.

The painting is a "likely hidden treasure", Caspar Leighton, the artist's great-nephew, told AFP.

Going under the hammer for the first time next month, the painting is estimated to sell for between £50,000 and £70,000 ($68,000 and $95,000).

Clare Leighton met Gandhi in 1931, when he was in London for talks with the British government on India's political future.

She was part of London's left-wing artistic circles and was introduced to Gandhi by her partner, journalist Henry Noel Brailsford.

"I think there was clearly a bit of artistic intellectual courtship that went on," said Caspar, pointing out that his great-aunt and Gandhi shared a "sense of social justice".

Painting attacked

The portrait, painted at a crucial time for India's independence struggle, "shows Gandhi at the height of his power", added Caspar.

It was exhibited in London in November 1931, following which Gandhi's personal secretary, Mahadev Desai, wrote to Clare: "It was such a pleasure to have had you here for many mornings doing Mr Gandhi's portrait."

"Many of my friends who saw it in the Albany Gallery said to me that it was a good likeness," reads a copy of the letter attached to the painting's backing board.

The painting intimately captures Gandhi's likeness but it also bears reminders of his violent death.

Gandhi was shot at point-blank range in 1948 by disgruntled Hindu nationalist activist Nathuram Godse, once closely associated with the right-wing paramilitary organization RSS.

Godse and some other Hindu nationalist figures accused Gandhi of betraying Hindus by agreeing to the partition of India and the creation of Muslim-majority Pakistan.

According to Leighton's family, the painting was attacked with a knife by a "Hindu extremist" believed to be an RSS activist, in the early 1970s.

Although there is no documentation of the attack, a label on the back of the painting confirms that it was restored in the United States in 1974.

Under UV light, Demery pointed out the shadow of a deep gash running across Gandhi's face where the now-restored painting was damaged.

"It feels very deliberate," she said.

'Real home'

The repairs "add to the value of the picture in a sense... to its place in history, that Gandhi was again attacked figuratively many decades after his death", said Caspar.

The only other recorded public display of the painting was in 1978 at a Boston Public Library exhibition of Clare Leighton's work.

After Clare's death, the artwork passed down to Caspar's father and then to him.

"There's my family's story but the story in this portrait is so much greater," he said.

"It's a story for millions of people across the world," he added.

"I think it'd be great if it got seen by more people. Maybe it should go back to India -- maybe that's its real home."

Unlike countless depictions of the man known in India as the "father of the nation" -- in stamps, busts, paraphernalia and recreated artwork -- "this is actually from the time", said Caspar.

"This might be really the last truly significant picture of Gandhi to emerge from that time."