'A truly great writer and a formidable journalist'

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Lord Young of Norwood Green urges the House of Lords to pay tribute to Dickens on his bicentenary and reflects on his own admiration for Dickens' work.

As a lover of Victorian literature I came to Dickens somewhat late in life. Of course, like many people I had a familiarity with his works: I’d seen the films, watched the television series and listened to radio adaptations, but I hadn’t actually read any of the novels.

About four years ago I was looking at my bookshelves and there in pristine condition, apart from a layer of dust, was the collected works of ‘The Inimitable’, as he was known to his contemporaries; they were a birthday present from my wife over 20 years ago. It occurred to me, in a random thought, that I had no wish to be cremated with them unread! So I set myself the task of reading them in chronological order, without any other literary interruption, from ‘Sketches by Boz’ to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his last unfinished work – apart from ‘A Child’s History of England‘, which received only a cursory inspection.

It took me just over a year, and I followed it up with Peter Ackroyd’s excellent biography. I’m currently reading Robert Douglas-Fairhurst’s biography, ‘Becoming Dickens – The Invention of a Novelist’, which focuses on the early years and how Dickens could have chosen a variety of career paths before he developed into one of the world’s greatest novelists.

I find it hard to choose a favourite because so many of them have given me so much pleasure: the humour of Pickwick Papers, the drama of Great Expectations, Bleak House and Little Dorrit; intricate stories with complex plots and an astonishing variety of characters who are larger than life, but so obviously drawn from life, reflecting Dickens’ own experiences, and last but by no means least, exposing some of the great social evils of his time. He was a tireless campaigner for so many vital causes: public education, public health and safety, social housing, children’s rights, literacy and copyright: all issues which are still relevant today.

My motivation for putting down an oral question today was to ensure that the House of Lords paid tribute to Dickens as one of our greatest writers and also as a formidable journalist who reported on the proceedings of Parliament, significantly during the passage of the 1831 Reform Bill, working for two newspapers: the Mirror of Parliament and the True Sun, a new evening newspaper which prided itself on its radical stance – a bit different to today’s Sun.

It is easy to forget just how popular Dickens was: many of his novels were serialised and people were desperate to get their hands on the next monthly edition of the magazine as the plot unfolded and, in the case of ‘The Old Curiosity Shop’, the death of Little Nell almost had the nation in mourning.

There is a lovely story of Thackeray’s ten year-old daughter sitting with her father and looking up from a book she was reading and saying, “Papa, why do you not write books like Nicholas Nickleby?” His response is not recorded, but no doubt he supported the Victorian view that children should be seen and not heard. For those of us who had the good fortune to be in Westminster Abbey on the 7th February, it was a fitting tribute to a truly great writer.

Lord Young of Norwood Green was raised to the peerage in 2004. He is the Opposition Spokesperson for Business, Innovation and Skills.