Oliver Twist

As a young kid reading Dickens for the first time I was mesmerised by this journey into the underworld of Victorian London. I would go on my own imaginary adventures with the Artful Dodger and his gang of thieving street urchins. Years later, when writing my own book about modern street gang members I had the same sense of going on a thrilling journey of discovery and escapades.

It would be impossible for me to recommend books that venture to the dark side of Victorian life and not name a Dickens novel. This is a writer who lived, worked, and immersed himself in the time about which he writes, a contemporary who we can still (thank goodness!) read today. To read Oliver Twist is like receiving a commentary on what Dickens experienced, saw, and heard about almost 200 years on.

The writing, of course, is exemplary but it is more than that which affects me whenever I read this book – it is the sadness of the children,… show more.