Phiz: the Man who Drew Dickens by Valerie Browne Lester

Darker shades of ink

For all his Christmas carol sentiment, Charles Dickens was ruthless. When he unilaterally cancelled his marriage, building a wall inside the house to isolate his wife, he demanded everyone do the same. Within a few months he shed not only wife but publishers, colleagues and friends. The chief casualty was his long-time illustrator Hablot Knight Browne, known as "Phiz" to Dickens's "Boz".

Phiz's pictures of portly Mr P and jaunty Sam Weller were the making of The Pickwick Papers. After joining Dickens on the trip to find Dotheboys Hall, he continued through Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. Then no more.

Starting on her family history, Valerie Browne Lester was warned to "keep Dickens at bay" - a hard task given Hablot K's passive personality. His illustrator's hand was quickened by the energy of the texts, to conjure nervous, comic and grotesque images, swiftly etched on steel without loss of definition. But he lacked invention; his own ideas rarely rose above the facetious.

Browne's Micawberish father, who eventually skipped to Philadelphia leaving debts and a dozen children, was in fact his grandfather. The Brownes were of Huguenot origin - on marriage in 1722, Michel Bruneau and Helene Descharmes became Michael and Eleanor Browne - but Hablot's name came from the dashing French captain who captivated his eldest sister, Kate, and was believed to have been killed at Waterloo. Some fudging of birthdates enabled Kate's mother to rear him as her own - an undiscussed family secret.

Unfortunately for Hablot, inherited financial ineptitude, ironically coupled with his very Dickensian graphic style, contributed to his professional decline. Though he illustrated many other books, including 20 by the now forgotten Charles "Harry Lorrequer" Lever, Browne was unable to develop his draughtsmanship as new fashions and technologies arrived. Unfortunately for his biographer, his personal life was uneventful, and those of his 10 surviving children are uninteresting.

It does not help that both Boz and Phiz burnt their letters, although some preserved examples hardly provoke regret: theirs was a male world of alternating jocularity and briskness, not depth. The postscript, briefly outlining Lester's search for Phiz, is livelier than much else she relates, though she makes a gallant attempt to restore his reputation. The illustrations, teeming with tiny, expressive figures and dark cross-hatching, remind us how strongly Browne's pictures define the early Victorian era, between Cruikshank and Tenniel.

Jan Marsh's biography of DG Rossetti is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson

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