Mrs Dickens
Mrs Dickens at Bromley House Library, Nottingham
About the show
From the pen of Emily Howes, the award-winning author of The Painter's Daughters comes a new work of historical fiction at its finest. Vibrant, witty and deeply moving, Mrs Dickens traces a long marriage in all its tenderness, grief, romance and fury. It illuminates the life of a complex, forgotten woman whose voice often went unheard but whose story deserves to be told.
London, 1836. Nineteen-year-old Kate Hogarth falls in love with the young journalist Charles Dickens. In the early days of their marriage, Charles is infatuated with his new bride and Kate delights in her new life, the balm to her husband’s irrepressible spirit. But as he finds fame as a novelist and the family rise through the ranks of Victorian society, Kate becomes increasingly aware of his frustration that real people cannot be manipulated as easily as his characters. As the years go by and the family expands, the cracks in the Dickens' marriage deepen. Kate seeks comfort and companionship in her trusted servant Anne, but whilst Anne has come to care deeply for Mrs Dickens, her loyalties are tested to breaking point as Charles takes control of their future...
Emily will be in conversation at the library, talking about Mrs Dickens, her writing life, and the acclaimed debut The Painter's Daughters and more.