The novel is written with wry humour and with Dickensian names which lightly disguise the real people Jacob had known.

Mind you, Balls is a very Dickensian name.

Pronounced cheerful and healthy despite her ordeal, the plucky girl with the Dickensian name was whisked away by authorities before being fixed in the spotlight.

They also wrote that "Drudge, with his droll Dickensian name, was not the only media or political agent whose actions led to John Kerry's defeat.

After studying at a school with the Dickensian name of Downside, he went to Oxford and, failing his exams, left after one year.

In the British version, the Wernham Hogg outpost was in a dreary London suburb with the deliciously Dickensian name Slough.

The turnoff for this South Yorkshire mining town with the Dickensian name comes up shortly after an election billboard on the main road saying, "Britain is booming."

Mr. Dette, incidentally, notes a gold mine of Dickensian names in the real names of movie stars who didn't like them.