In case you hadn't noticed it 2012 is the bicentenary of Dickens's birth and we have already had Edwin Drood and Great Expectations on the BBC and various documentaries with more to come. I have loved Dickens all my life and am simply wallowing in all this and various publishers are putting out biographies and books all about Charles and his life and OUP have certainly come up with some great stuff.
Dickens and the Worekhouse – Ruth Richardson. A copy of this arrived courtesy of my long suffering but perennially cheerful postman this morning who is now used to the packages that come my way, 
and it is now sitting by my laptop as I write. A recent discovery that as a young man Charles Dickens lived only a few doors from a major London work house triggered off speculation that this might be THE workhouse featured in Oliver Twist and this book is written by the historian who did all the sleuthing behind this discovery and, as always, is a gem of a little book with all of the production values that I associate with OUP – clear print, gorgeous paper and packed full of black and white illustrations. Looking forward to reading this.
Sketches of Young Gentleman and Young Couples – This contains two collections of little known sketches by CD all illustrated by the wonderful Phiz. Here is a sample:
"The extremely natural young lady is always doing some out of the 
way thing, that she may appear simple and girlish. She is most particularly fond of romping; and when you are out walking with her, is sure to run after a small donkey or jump a ditch, or have her fortune told, or thrust herself bolt through a hedge; all which little exhibitions she esteems to be beautiful and touching pieces of rustic elegance"
Priceless.
The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens – edited by Paul Schlicke. Not a lot I can say about this except that it is simply wonderful. I keep dipping into it, to check a reference or look up the location of a book or anything and before I know it, one thing leads to another and I am off reading something entirely different. If you love Charles Dickens and do not have this on your shelves then I urge you, go get – it will be, as it says, a Companion to all lovers 
of the Inimitable.
The Selected Letters of Charles Dickens – edited by Jenny Hartley. Dickens wrote thousands of letters and if he had not decided to burn great swathes of his correspondence then we might have had even more. Jenny Harley has had a labour of love on her hands as she has extrapolated some 450 letters out of this vast collection and made these accessible to the general reader, ie you and me, for the first time.
When I opened this and began to flick through I found I was on page 16 and in a letter dated 16 January 1835 I found this, and laughed:
"As the Election here had not commenced, I went on to Colchester (which is a very nice town) and returned here on the following morning…….if any one were to ask me what in my opinion was the dullest and most stupid spot on the face of the earth, I should decidedly say Chelmsford. Though only 29 miles from town there is not a single shop where they sell Sunday Papers….here I am on a wet Sunday looking out of a damned large bow window at the rain as it falls into the puddles opposite…..there is not even anything to look at in the place…"
I tell you now, there are quite a few Colcestrians who still feel that way about Chelmsford!
Now as well as being publishers of wonderful books the Oxford University Press are a nice generous lot and they have given me a copy of these Selected Letters as a give away in a Prize Draw.
In order to win this I would like you please to tell me who is your favourite Dickens Character and why. The winner will be chosen by Moi who will, quite arbitrarily, choose the answer that I love the best. The sense of power creeping over me is quite scary already….
I look forward to all your responses.
My thanks, as ever, to the Oxford University Press.
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