Oliver Twist & Me

We all think we know the tale. As a child, Charles Dickens was forced to work in a blacking factory in terrible conditions, an event that scarred him for life and inspired his great novel about a vulnerable child Oliver Twist. Except that only tells one part of the story. Dickens actually lifted significant parts of the narrative from one of the earliest working-class memoirs by genuine factory boy Robert Blincoe. In Oliver Twist & Me, Robert Blincoe's great-great-grandson, the novelist Nicholas Blincoe, presents a dual biography of the early years of Robert and Dickens, including reflections on his own quasi-Dickensian upbringing in Rochdale. He retraces the steps of his ancestor, whose life story was scarred by tragedy and redeemed by hope, as well as traipses the streets of Camden in search of the real workhouse that inspired the novel. Both an affectionate reassessment of a beloved classic and a trenchant investigation into what it takes for working-class voices to be heard on their own terms, Oliver Twist & Me will show you Dickens as you've never seen him before.