Last year I enjoyed the (short) Hard Times again so much - the banking crisis anticipated - that I read a second - A Tale Of Two Cities, although I knew the plot so well - and was delighted by how superb it was. So this year - Oliver Twist.

Wonderful, dark, so different from the films and musical. Far more evil is Fagin, a vile character. So much more believable is Oliver, inately good, despite temptation. So fabulous is Nancy, so complex; how dare critics say he only paints caricatures?

His second novel (after Pickwick); very early Charles - splendid but nowhere near as great as Bleak House and Cities - my two favourites.