Dickens derailed
ON 9 JUNE 1865 Charles Dickens caught the 2.38pm “tidal train” from Folkestone to Charing Cross with Ellen “Nelly” Ternan — an actress 27 years his junior who was widely believed to be his mistress — and her mother. They were in first-class, returning from a trip to France, and Dickens had part of the manuscript of Our Mutual Friend in his coat pocket.
As the train passed through Kent, disaster struck. Workmen on a section of track
