Published: 27 October 2011
by GEORGIA GRAHAM

HUNDREDS of Charles Dickens fans gathered to hear his award-winning biographer reveal some of the writer’s secrets.

Claire Tomalin told the large audience at the St Mary the Virgin Church in Elsworthy Road that she had experienced “huge joy” researching the “very attractive” Dickens for her new book, Charles Dickens: A Life.

Ms Tomalin had been invited to give a talk by the Primrose Hill Bookshop, following her move from Primrose Hill to Richmond.

She said: “I feel like the lost daughter being in the church.

I lived for 40 years in Gloucester Crescent but in all that time I never came to this church. I must say it is very, very nice to see the intelligent people of north London.”

Dickens, Ms Tomalin reminded the audience on Thursday, was a Camden boy from his early youth – taken out of his idyllic country school and forced to live a gritty urban life with his family in Camden Town.

She told how she had been fascinated by him for decades and how she revealed the biggest skeleton in his closet – a mistress known as “Nelly” – in her 1990 book The Invisible Woman.

“It has been a huge joy to be in his company,” she said.

“His creative energy is unparalleled. . .  He was doing so many different things all at the same time, it must have been a lot for him to deal with – and it was quite a lot for his biographer to deal with too.”