Earlier this year I reviewed John Sutherland’s The Dickens Dictionary and it was this book which started the whole idea of Dickens in December. That’s why we are particularly pleased that Icon Books have offered us two copies  of the Dictionary for our first giveaway. We are giving a way one book per blog.

I really like this book, it’s informative, interesting and contains a lot of illustrations. Here is the blurb

For fans old and new, a fascinating tour through Charles Dickens’ novels in the hands of a master critic.

Oliver Twist … Great Expectations … David Copperfield – all contain a riotous fictional world that still leaves and breathes for readers the world over today.But how much do we really know about Charles Dickens’ dazzling imagination, which has brought this all into being?

To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Dickens – 2012 – Victorian literature expert John Sutherland has created a gloriously wide-ranging alphabetical companion to Dickens’ novels, excavating the hidden links between his characters, themes, and preoccupations, and the minutiae of his endlessly inventive wordplay.

Covering America, Bastards, Childhood, Christmas, Empire, Fog, Larks, London, Madness, Murder, Orphans, Pubs, Punishment, Smells, Spontaneous Combustion and Zoo to name but a few – John Sutherland gives us a uniquely personal guide to Charles Dickens’ books.

If you’d like to win a copy of this book, just leave a comment. If you want to improve your chances of winning you can leave a comment on this and one on Delia’s blog. That way your name will  be in both draws but you can only win once.

The giveaway is open internationally. The winners will be announced on Tuesday 11 December.