Tom Williams

The year of living decisively: The Turning Point, by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, reviewed

Dickens was not originally a novelist but it was in 1851, a tumultuous year in many respects, that he discovered his true purpose: to use fiction to comment on the state of the nation

A scene from Bleak House, which Dickens began writing in 1851. Credit: Getty Images
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  • The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World

    Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

    Cape, pp. 256, £25

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