Weekend Stubble

Today's Telegraph notes a new biography of Dickens illustrator Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"), Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens, written by the fellow's own great-great-granddaughter Valerie Browne Lester. Over at the Times there's a review of Hunted Down: The Detective Stories of Charles Dickens. Dickens spent a lot of time in the London courts in his early days, and there was a real explosion of crime reporting and its fictional offspring underway by 1830s. I have a long article slated to come out later this summer on this very subject -- more on that closer to the time -- and it's great to see some of this work reemerging...

In a fine touch, the Times also has a newspaper clipping of the author's dismayed account of a public execution.