Who would have thought Charles Dickens and Prince had anything in common? In his new book, extracted here, Nick Hornby explores connections between two of his heroes, both artists ‘with no off-switch’
• Q&A: Nick Hornby on the new novel and his dual obsession
There used to be a thing that did the rounds, a meme before memes existed, which pointed out the uncanny similarities between Abraham Lincoln and John Fitzgerald Kennedy: both were elected to Congress in 46 and became president in 60; both were shot in the head on a Friday; both lost a son while living in the White House; both were succeeded by southern Democrats called Johnson; both were assassinated by men with three names, each composed of 15 letters, and so on. Well, that’s not what I’m going to attempt to do here. Charles John Huffam Dickens (24 letters) was a white 19th-century writer, and Prince Rogers Nelson (18 letters) was a Black 20th- and 21st-century musician. Dickens never heard anything that Prince recorded, and there is no evidence to suggest that Prince ever read any Dickens. I suppose one could argue feebly that they were and still are known by one name, but actually that’s true of most famous artists. So the one-name thing doesn’t wash.
When I was thinking about linking Prince and Dickens, I had one coincidence to work with: they were both 58 years old when they died. But on closer inspection, Prince wasn’t 58 when he died. He was 57. So I don’t even have that.
