Annie Elliot’s novel, Mr and Mrs Charles Dickens, is set in the 24 hours after Dickens’s death in 1870, following his wife Catherine as she mulls over their life together, relives its joys and betrayals, and reclaims her voice. Exclusively for Big Issue, Elliot chooses her top five books about Dickens.
The Other Dickens: A Life of Catherine Hogarth by Lillian Nayder
Looking at Dickens through his wife’s eyes provides a new perspective on him as a family man and shatters the illusion that being able to write so convincingly about loving relationships made him a good husband and father in real life.
Charles Dickens and Georgina Hogarth by Christine Skelton
Dickens forced Catherine out of the family home and away from her children but her sister chose to stay with him. This highlights not only his ability to inspire loyalty but the limited choices available to women at that time.
The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin
Dickens never recovered from the childhood trauma of seeing his father locked up in debtors’ prison, so when he fell in love with an 18-year-old actress, self-preservation drove him to destroy his wife’s reputation to protect his own.
Dinner For Dickens by Susan M Rossi-Wilcox
Through the prism of 1851’s What Shall We Have for Dinner?, the best-selling cookery book written by Catherine, we gain revealing insights into the homelife enjoyed by this successful couple.
Dickens’s Kent by Peter Clark
After a row with Catherine, Dickens walked from his home in London to his country retreat near Rochester. Peter Clark followed in his footsteps 155 years later and brings to life the landscape of Kent which inspired some of the great author’s work.
