Book review
The Dickens Boy
Charles Dickens had ten children, while the elder sons advanced to positions Dickens approved of the youngest, Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens – known as Porn, showed little sign of becoming anything of note. Rather that running the risk of this under-achieving son tarnish his reputation he sent Porn off to Australia to learn to ‘apply himself’.
The story opens with his landing at Melbourne in 1868 and travelling to a remote New South Wales sheep station where his father had arranged a position for him. The reader then follows his years of adventure living in this far flung location.
Dickens’ objective of his son learning to ’become a man’ was certainly achieved as he lived with a diverse range of the toughest companions; colonists, ex convicts, ex soldiers, members of the local Paakantji Aboriginal people and very few women.
Against this backdrop the story encompasses sheep droving, inter station cricket matches, bushrangers, frontier wars, and shifty stock and station agents.
Author Tom Keneally is in familiar territory. He a recognised master in ferreting out all the known facts and then filling in the gaps to produce a great story.
In Dickens’ case there is much contemporarily written about him and his times which Keneally was able to access. There are also many letters written between Porn and his mother and sister which are preserved, these show that Porn knew and was sad that he had disappointed his father and strived to gain his approbation.
In this book Keneally expertly moulds the historical figures and events into a story of excitement, compassion and humour. A wonderful way to enjoy an engrossing read while also adding to my historic knowledge Mike Beckett
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