Synopsis: Young Charles Dickens's happy childhood came to a sudden end when his father was jailed for debt and, aged 12, he was sent to work in a factory making shoe polish. By his mid twenties, he was on the verge of becoming the most popular novelist the world has ever known, creating hundreds of unforgettable characters, but Charles never forgot his days working alongside poor and abandoned orphans.

Review: Billen very successfully recreates the Victorian era in which Dickens lived, giving life and meaning to the characters and scenarios that he wrote about. The reader is given a refreshing and truly accessible insight into how Dickens as a writer worked: where he got his inspiration; how he was published and how well he was received at the time. The quality of writing is surprisingly good for a book in series and the descriptions are evocative of the time and the sentiments of the subject.

This is a wonderful book to share with children alongside a study of his life and work or indeed as an example of an influential Victorian. Excellent!

2006-12-29