Please, sir, can I have a walk? Dickens biographer finds likely inspiration for Oliver Twist

October 9, 2026 · 7:00 am 1 sources

Image: The Guardian

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• Please, sir, can I have a walk? Dickens biographer finds likely inspiration for Oliver Twist
  The Guardian · October 9, 2026 07:00
  Exclusive: Theresa Musgrove unearths newspaper archives showing one Alice Shepherd was severely punished in 1836 for similarly innocent request Could a consumptive young woman called Alice Shepherd have been the inspiration for Oliver Twist? That is a question now being posed by a historian, who…