The TV Book Club returns with The Help

The TV Book Club on Channel 4 launched a new series on Sunday 27 June. Among other things - this episode looked at the electronic alternative to the traditional book - each episode will discuss a particular book. Not only do the panel of contributors say what they've made of the week's book, but also the views of A Celebrity are sought as well as those of book clubs around the country.

The book of the first episode was Kathryn Stockett's The Help the story of three women on either side of the racial divide but with intersecting lives in sixties Jackson, Mississippi at the time of the civil rights movement. As the author reveals in interview, there is an autobiographical element to the book, and some of the contributors were initially somewhat uneasy about the assumption of the author, a well-to-do white woman, that she could present the viewpoint of a black maid. Nevertheless, the other qualities of the book - the characters, the story-telling, the humour, the musicality of the dialogue - convincingly won over Jo Brand and the rest of the panel.

 If you didn't get to see this first programme of the series, it can still be viewed at the time of writing at the Channel 4 website.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on The Help or the programme, put them in the comments box below.