James Walton

Strange bedfellows: Charles Dickens and the popstar Prince

Nick Hornby yokes the two in an enjoyable jeu d’esprit – but, apart from troubled childhoods and prodigious energy, the thing they really share is Hornby’s admiration

By his death, Charles Dickens had written four million words of fiction, decades’ worth of journalism and more than 14,000 letters. In his spare time he walked 12 miles a day. [Getty Images]
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  • Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius

    Nick Hornby

    Viking, pp. 112, £9

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