The Baker's Tale. Thomas Hauser
BOOKS BY THOMAS HAUSER
GENERAL NON-FICTION
Missing
The Trial of Patrolman Thomas Shea
For Our Children
(with Frank Macchiarola)
The Family Legal Companion
Final Warning: The Legacy of Chernobyl
(with Dr. Robert Gale)
Arnold Palmer: A Personal Journey
Confronting America’s Moral Crisis
(with Frank Macchiarola)
Healing: A Journal of Tolerance and Understanding
With This Ring
(with Frank Macchiarola)
Thomas Hauser on Sports
Reflections
BOXING NON-FICTION
The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing
Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
Muhammad Ali: Memories
Muhammad Ali: In Perspective
Muhammad Ali & Company
A Beautiful Sickness
A Year At The Fights
Brutal Artistry
The View From Ringside
Chaos, Corruption, Courage, and Glory
The Lost Legacy of Muhammad Ali
I Don’t Believe It, But It’s True
Knockout
(with Vikki LaMotta)
The Greatest Sport of All
The Boxing Scene
An Unforgiving Sport
Boxing Is . . .
Box: The Face of Boxing
The Legend of Muhammad Ali
(with Bart Barry)
Winks and Daggers
And the New . . .
Straight Writes and Jabs
Thomas Hauser on Boxing
A Hurting Sport
FICTION
Ashworth & Palmer
Agatha’s Friends
The Beethoven Conspiracy
Hanneman’s War
The Fantasy
Dear Hannah
The Hawthorne Group
Mark Twain Remembers
Finding The Princess
Waiting For Carver Boyd
The Final Recollections of Charles Dickens
The Baker’s Tale
FOR CHILDREN
Martin Bear & Friends
Copyright © 2015 Thomas Hauser
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Despite the incidental use of actual historical figures and places, the characters and incidents portrayed in this book are wholly fictional.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Hauser, Thomas.
The Bakers Tale: Ruby Spriggs and the Legacy of Charles Dickens / Thomas Hauser.
pages; cm
1. Bakers—England—London—Fiction. 2. London (England)—Social conditions—19th century—Fiction. 3. London (England)—Social life and customs—19th century—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3558.A759B35 2015
813’.54—dc23
2015009414
Cover design by Faceout
Interior design by Neuwirth & Associates
Counterpoint Press
2560 Ninth Street, Suite 318
Berkeley, CA 94710
Distributed by Publishers Group West
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
e-book ISBN 978-1-61902-669-8
FOR RUBY CARELLIE CHAPMAN
AND
REECE EDWIN CHAPMAN
Contents
Book 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Book 2
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Book 3
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Book 4
Chapter 13
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Throughout the manuscript, I have comingled the words of Charles Dickens with my own. I have also drawn from the May 1842 report of the Royal Commission headed by Lord Anthony Ashley that investigated the conditions in England’s mines.
Thomas Hauser