Scenes of London Life

Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure. Chosen and introduced by the playwright J. B. Priestley, these twelve marvellous sketches are accompanied by George Cruikshank’s evocative illustrations.

Charles Dickens was one of the great chroniclers of London life. From the colourful chaos of dances and gin-shops to the sparse destitution of the pawnshop and the penitentiary, he captured the grime and the glory of the English capital with singular brilliance.

Orphans and beggars, lord mayors and murderers, actors, criminals, cab drivers and prostitutes; all rub shoulders in this wonderful selection from Sketches by Boz.

About the Author

Charles Dickens was born in 1812 near Portsmouth, where his father worked as a clerk. Living in London in 1824, Dickens was sent by his family to work in a blacking-warehouse, and his father was arrested and imprisoned for debt. Fortunes improved and Dickens returned to school, eventually becoming a parliamentary reporter. His first piece of fiction was published by a magazine in December 1832, and by 1836 he had begun his first novel, The Pickwick Papers. He focused his career on writing, completing fourteen highly successful novels, as well as penning journalism, shorter fiction and travel books. He died in 1870.

J. B. Priestley was born in Bradford in 1894. He fought in the First World War and was badly wounded in 1916. He went on to study at Trinity Hall, Cambridge and, from the late 1920s, established himself as a successful novelist, playwright, essayist, social commentator and radio broadcaster. He is best known for his 1945 play, An Inspector Calls. J. B. Priestley died in 1984.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878) was a London born British caricaturist and illustrator. He is particularly famed for his illustrations that accompanied the works of Charles Dickens, such as Oliver Twist, The Mudfog Papers and Scenes of London Life. In his lifetime he created almost 10,000 prints, illustrations and plates that are currently housed in the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His remains are buried in St Paul's Cathedral.