Charles Dickens: A Life

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Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin: 1. Childhood

Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin

1. Childhood

BBC Radio 4 - Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin, 1. Childhood

The troubled childhood of Charles Dickens.

The acclaimed biography explores Dickens's troubled childhood when his father’s fortunes took a turn. Read by Penelope Wilton.

Claire Tomalin's acclaimed biography of Britain's great novelist paints a portrait of an extraordinarily complex man.

It begins with an exploration of Charles Dickens's troubled childhood.

He’s portrayed as a writer "so charged with imaginative energy that he rendered 19th century England crackling, full of truth and life, with his laughter, horror and indignation - and sentimentality."

The Artful Dodger, Mr Pickwick, Pip and David Copperfield are just a handful of the characters he created and who continue to endure.

He was also a hard-working journalist, a philanthropist, a supporter of liberal social causes, and father of ten, and yet his genius also had a dark side which emerged with the breakdown of his marriage.

Read by Penelope Wilton.

Abridged in five parts by Richard Hamilton.

Producer:  Elizabeth Allard

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.

*** Claire Tomalin was literary editor of the The New Statesman and then the Sunday Times before becoming a full time writer. The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, won the Whitbread First Book Award, and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self was Whitbread Book of the Year in 2002.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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Claire Tomalin's acclaimed biography of Britain's great novelist. Read by Penelope Wilton.

Book of the Week: Claire Tomalin's acclaimed biography of Britain's great novelist. Read by Penelope Wilton.

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1. Childhood

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