Charles Dickens was a phenomenon: a demonicly hardworking journalist, the father of ten children, a tireless walker and traveller, a supporter of liberal social causes, but most of all a great novelist - the creator of characters who live immortally in the English imagination: the Artful Dodger, Mr Pickwick, Pip, David Copperfield, Little Nell, Lady Dedlock and many more. At the age of twelve he was sent to work in a blacking factory by his affectionate but feckless parents. From these unpromising beginnings, he rose to scale all the social and literary heights, entirely through his own efforts. When he died, the world mourned, and he was buried - against his wishes - in Westminster Abbey. Yet the brilliance concealed a divided character: a republican, he disliked America; sentimental about the family in his writings, he took up passionately with a young actress; usually generous, he cut off his impecunious children. This pictorial history will shed a new and alternative light on this literary giant.

About the Author
Phil Carradice is a poet, novelist and historian who has written over forty books, the most recent being A Pembrokeshire Childhood (Amberley). Carradice broadcasts regularly on BBC radio/television and writes a weekly blog for BBC Wales History.


Book Information
ISBN 9781781552780
Author Phil Carradice
Format Paperback
Page Count 176
Imprint Fonthill Media Ltd
Publisher Fonthill Media Ltd