"1851: a year of political unrest and social inequality, industrial progress and artistic innovation, it is also a turbulent year in the private life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and a home in danger of falling apart. But this formative year will become perhaps the greatest turning point in his life and writing, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives and establishes himself as an important national figure for demanding social reform and justice. Conjuring a bustling, foggy and precarious London in thrilling detail, The Turning Point takes us onto the streets with Dickens, into the office of his newly launched journal Household Words, into his home and marriage, and into his imagination as he begins to compose his masterpiece, Bleak House. Fully illustrated and brimming with delightful anecdotes about the larger-than-life man and his plethora of timeless characters and stories, this is the closest look yet at one of the greatest literary personalities ever to have lived"--