Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens
Her Story
After twenty-two years of marriage, Charles Dickens banished his wife, Kate from their home and nine children and wrecked her reputation to protect his own when he fell in love with an eighteen-year-old actress.
This is Kate's story: a poignant self-portrait of a woman struggling to achieve peace of mind by making sense of a marriage that defined, but nearly destroyed her. Sifting through her husband's letters after his sudden death she relives the happy times they shared but also speaks up for herself to expose the darker side of the man the world reveres.
On her deathbed, Kate asked her daughter to give Charles's letters to the British Museum 'so the world may know he loved me once.' This novel fulfils her dying wish and restores her to history as more than a famous author's discarded wife. It bestows on Kate the respect, dignity, agency and voice she was denied in life.
Reviews
In her lifetime Catherine Dickens was too often the supporting act to her husband's starring role. Annie Elliot’s meticulously researched, empathetic reimagining of Catherine, at long last, places her centre stage in the Dickens family drama
Peter Thompson, Volunteer at the Charles Dickens Museum
This absorbing novel brings Catherine Dickens, nee Hogarth, out of obscurity, giving her a voice of her own and a distinctive character. It successfully performs a tricky balancing act between meticulous historical accuracy and an imaginative recreation of a believable, flesh and blood woman. The author comes over as fully entering into the life of her central character, and enables us to do so too
Val Parks, Volunteer at the Charles Dickens Museum
The author set out to give Catherine Dickens a voice, a woman so often overruled and silenced by her dominant husband. By using fictional scenes and accurate accounts the author has imagined the newly widowed Catherine’s recollections of her marriage, starting with her first meeting Charles in the newspaper office, then their family life together and finally their separation. By giving Catherine a voice this book gives glimpses of the feisty woman Catherine could have become.
Mally Scrutton, Volunteer at the Charles Dickens Museum
