The Sparkler - Alan Humm
Alan Humm edits the arts journal One Hand Clapping. The Sparkler is his first novel but he has also written two collections of poetry: A Brief and Biased History of Love (out now with Culture Matters) and My Father is Calling the Neighbours Names. His second novel, Rough Music, follows a journalist and a Labour politician from 1945 to the early noughties and he is currently writing a book about an ’80s pop band.
GENRE: Historical fiction
Blurb:
Charles Dickens is a newly famous author and a man who has only just married. He thinks that he is about to become a father. Why, then, does he go wandering London after dark and why, under the influence of a famous clown, does he begin an affair with Sarah, a barmaid who works in a North London pub? During a Christmas entertainment held in his own house, Dickens, Sarah, and his wife edge towards a confrontation that has the potential to ruin him for ever.
