Here comes yet another story about Dickens and family (long article, so scroll WAY down):
It's perhaps [Tom] Keneally's talent for self-invention that attracts him to
the tale of Charles Dickens's younger boys -- Edward and Alfred -- and
their little-known lives in Australia. Keneally began working on an
imagined life of the duo several years ago, but after several field
trips to Wilcannia and beyond he dropped the fictional version of the
project. It will feature strongly in volume two of Australians, as
nonfiction.
There are some interesting details:
The next son to arrive is the youngest, the much-loved Edward. Burdened
since infancy with the monicker Plorn -- short for
Plornishmaroontigoonter . . .
What the heck?
But weird nicknames or no, Plorn seems to have had a good head on his shoulders:
Edward eventually finds his feet and is elected to the NSW
parliament of Parkes (hero of the first volume of Australians), in
1889.
"His most famous moment," Keneally says with an enthusiasm that augurs well for the next book, "occurs in parliament when he was challenged by a certain W.N. Willis."
"My late honoured father once wrote 'Barkis is willin'," intoned Edward as he took the floor. "If he had been here tonight, he would have said Willis is barkin'."
Awesome.
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