A MAJOR NEW BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DICKENS *BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF BECOMING DICKENS AND THE STORY OF ALICE * The year 1851 is a moment for radical change in Britain. A time of political unrest and social inequality, industrial progress and artistic innovation, it's also a turbulent time in the private life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and a home in danger of falling apart. But this formative year will become perhaps the greatest turning point in Dickens' life and writing, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives and establishes himself as an important national figure for demanding social reform and justice. The Turning Point transports us into Dickens' London, closely following the twists and turns of a single year that would come to define him, and forever alter the novel and Britain's relationship with the world. Conjuring a bustling, foggy and precarious London in thrilling detail, it guides us with Dickens on the streets, into the office of his newly launched journal Household Words , into his home and marriage, and into his imagination as a writer as he began to compose his masterpiece, Bleak House . Fully illustrated and brimming with delightful anecdotes about the larger-than-life man and his plethora of timeless characters and stories, this is the closest look yet at one of the greatest literary personalities ever to have lived. 'It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens' NEW STATESMAN 'A startling and exciting writer' SPECTATOR.