Book Review

Dickens & Prince: Tracing the genius from Pickwick Papers to Purple Rain

The great novelist and musician are two of author Nick Hornby’s favourite artists – in his new book he outlines how they both had difficult childhoods, produced miraculous work in their 20s and had a ‘weakness’ for women

Prince: a difficult childhood led to a prodigious output of creativity, delivering incredible work in his 20s. His music and Dickens’s writings are set to be with us for a long time. Picture: Getty

Prince was a musical genre all on his own and Charles Dickens was one of the greatest novelists who ever held a pen, so genius is indeed the word that springs to mind when thinking of either man, but surely they’ve little else in common?

Not according to Nick Hornby, a writer who has shared musical and literary obsessions with us before in High Fidelity, 31 Songs, and his always entertaining Stuff I’ve Been Reading ...