Reader Reviews

Fascinating, readable and convincing insight into the thoughts and feelings of Catherine Dickens in the 24 hours after the death of her husband. Based on thorough research, Annie Elliot, provides us with an understanding of both the love and misuse experienced by this caring wife and mother throughout the 22 years of marriage to Charles Dickens.

Annie Elliot writes with great sympathy for Catherine Dickens. In a novel structured through shifts in time and a converging past and present, Elliot foregrounds Catherine's sense of loss in her marriage and her ability to counter and overcome that loss.

I have read it and I loved it! It's accessible, fun and poignant. The story of Mrs Dickens really does need to be told. It's another example of how a powerful man tried to silence a woman who wasn't "fitting" into his public image. It's a sad story but I loved the way you made it interesting and sometimes amusing.

In her lifetime Catherine Dickens was too often the supporting act to her husband's starring role. Annie Elliot’s meticulously researched, empathetic reimagining of Catherine, at long last, places her centre stage in the Dickens family drama

This absorbing novel brings Catherine Dickens, nee Hogarth, out of obscurity, giving her a voice of her own and a distinctive character. It successfully performs a tricky balancing act between meticulous historical accuracy and an imaginative recreation of a believable, flesh and blood woman. The author comes over as fully entering into the life of her central character, and enables us to do so too

The author set out to give Catherine Dickens a voice, a woman so often overruled and silenced by her dominant husband. By using fictional scenes and accurate accounts the author has imagined the newly widowed Catherine’s recollections of her marriage, starting with her first meeting Charles in the newspaper office, then their family life together and finally their separation. By giving Catherine a voice this book gives glimpses of the feisty woman Catherine could have become.

Annie Elliot’s exciting debut Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens – Her Story – So the world may know he love me once, had me hooked from the very beginning. I love a literary historical novel and especially one that illuminates an untold story. In this instance, it’s Catherine ‘Kate’ Dickens, the long suffering wife of Charles Dickens. Elliot has done a great deal of research and woven many literary characters of the day into her novel without in the least weighing it down. She’s drawn a huge cast of characters – almost a Dickensian novel in its own right – and all are well drawn and memorable. She’s particularly adept at depicting the increasingly intolerable domestic burden Kate shoulders. I genuinely cared about her and was incensed by her treatment. Highly recommend.

Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted, Annie’s novel gives life and voice to Kate Dickens and brings her from the shadows to which she was relegated by Charles' dominance and cruelty. Kate deserves to be read and understood in this moving, illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable account.