Dickens and Travel

Dickens and Travel written by Lucinda Hawksley and published by

Pen & Sword Books - £22 - Hardback - Pages 280

From childhood, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales from other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. In Dickens and Travel, Lucinda Hawksley looks at the journeys made by the author – who is also her great great great grandfather.

Although Dickens is usually perceived as a London author, in the 1840s he whisked his family away to live in Italy for year, and spent several months in Switzerland. Some years later he took up residence in Paris and Boulogne (where he lived in secret with his lover). In addition to travelling widely in Europe, he also toured America twice, performed onstage in Canada and, before his untimely death, was planning a tour of Australia.

Dickens and Travel enters into the world of the Victorian traveller and looks at how Charles Dickens’s journeys influenced his writing and enriched his life.

I found this to be a cracking little book, and that is from someone who doesn’t really like reading fiction but I found this one a little different. Maybe because it was about the writer and his travels rather than fiction. Although I may have only read one Dickens book I have always fancied reading more of his work. Written by I think a distant relative, Hawksley brings the book together well and makes an interesting read. We read all about Dickens's travels all around the world from Britain to Europe to America, he must have come across some brilliant characters and traditions. These probably influenced quite a bit of his writing without us even knowing. Although Dickens predominantly wrote about London life, reading about his travels for me has added an extra dimension to him and maybe I should start reading the odd Dickens novel. Great book, great writing.

Broadmoor Women

Broadmoor Women: Tales from Britain’s First Criminal Lunatic Asylum written

by Kim Thomas and published by Pen & Sword Books - £14.99 - Softcover - Pages 192

Broadmoor, Britain’s first asylum for criminal lunatics, was founded in 1863. In the first years

of its existence, one in five patients was female. Most had been tried for terrible crimes and

sent to Broadmoor after being found not guilty by virtue of insanity. Many had murdered their

own children, while others had killed husbands or other family members.

Drawing on Broadmoor’s rich archive, this book tells the story of seven of those women, ranging from a farmer’s daughter in her 20s who shot dead her own mother to a middle-class housewife who drowned her baby daughter. Their moving stories give a glimpse into what nineteenth-century life was like for ordinary women, often struggling with poverty, domestic abuse and repeated childbearing. For some, Broadmoor, with its regime of plain food, fresh air and garden walks, was a respite from the hardships of their previous life. Others were desperate to return to their families.

All but one of the women whose stories are recounted in this book recovered and were released. Their bout of insanity was temporary. Yet the causes of their condition were poorly understood and the treatment rudimentary. As well as providing an in-depth look at the lives of women in Victorian England, the book offers a fascinating insight into the medical profession’s emerging understanding of the causes and treatment of mental illness.

This is both a fascinating book and a sad one because it is basically a book about women who have fallen on hard times physically, mentally and in terms of income. In most cases are women who are having to live in desperate situations with no or little support from anyone, which is why they have reached this conclusion in that they haven’t been able to cope and so have now committed terrible crimes. The author Kim Thomas has done a great job of writing this book and has shown in her writing sympathy and understanding of the positions of these women.

The book tells the story of eight women all have committed serious crimes against people and children, but when you read the stories they have had no help or support from society, families or partners. If it was in today’s lifetime, these women would surely be seen as being mentally ill and needing help not cast into the hard life of a Broadmoor prison where they still wouldn’t get the help they needed. A really good book in how it was written but like I said at the start a very sad one.