"Deeply respecting, and bowing down before the character of Our Saviour, you cannot go very wrong, and will always preserve at heart a true spirit of veneration and humility.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a great storyteller; he possessed the unique ability of documenting the realities of life for both his contemporaries and future generations. A journalist, commentator, historian, and the social conscience of a nation, his influence and reach extended far beyond that normally associated with a novelist.

Although the subject of numerous books, none have sought to detail how the writer tried through his work to change the hearts of his readers. In this authoritative and highly readable new biography, Keith Hooper explores the nature and development of Dickens