‘Sutherland, as always, wears his erudition lightly, and his love of the quirky and off-beat shines warmly through this enjoyable book, which often made me laugh aloud’

Posted on 2012/01/23 , tagged as

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John Sutherland’s The Dickens Dictionary, published at the start of February, was reviewed in yesterday’s Independent on Sunday.

‘Sutherland takes 100 themes, ideas, Dickensian bits and pieces and biographical fragments arranged alphabetically from Mr Sleary’s “Amuthement” to “Zoo Horrors” via serendipitous headings such as “Cauls”, “Gruel”, “Nomenclature” and “Onions”.

Each section comprises a short, upbeat essay written in concise, witty, Hemingway-esque prose. Sutherland tells us under “Blue Plaques”, for example, that “Dickens has left more blue china in his wake than most notables”, or, under “Children”, that, from his marriage in 1836: “Thereafter children came thick and fast – in his homes and into his narratives.”‘

Read the full review here and more about the book here.