The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens

HELENA KELLY

Think you already know the story of Charles Dickens’ life? Think again.

Dickens’ close friend John Forster wrote an authorised biography 150 years ago. It’s the version of events that Dickens himself chose to make public, and newly accessible archives reveal that it’s crammed with gaps, inconsistencies, and outright lies.

Helena Kelly, author of the acclaimed Jane Austen, the Secret Radical, retells Dickens’ story from his childhood to his deathbed, uncovers the truths he tried to keep hidden, and offers a fresh - and deeply troubling - perspective on the man who remains one of Britain’s bestknown novelists.

You won’t be able to look at him – or his work –in the same way again.

HELENA KELLY grew up in North Kent. She has taught classics and English Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Oxford with her husband and son.