The Snake-Oil Dickens Man

From the clamour of P. T. Barnum's circus rushing through the dusty plains of Missouri to the packed theatres of New York, The Snake-Oil Dickens Man is the moving, witty story of a young man's loss of innocence in the search for his father.It is 1867 and Billy Talbot has been told that he is the illegitimate son of the great author, Charles Dickens. Billy's journey is thick with tricks, disguises and chance meetings that lead him to Hope Scattergood, a consumptive charlatan with his own interest in the great writer. Together Scattergood and Billy devise the 'Dickens Lay', a con that may lead Billy to a meeting with his father, the real Charles Dickens ...