Dickens Challenge

I don't normally do the challenges, but this one caught my eye because I've read and enjoyed many of Charles Dickens' books, and he's associated with Portsmouth which is just down the road from me.

I've chosen to start with the quote from Oliver Twist beginning "There are a good many books", focussing on the phrase "there are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."

I'm not suggesting the books aren't good to read.  I've read "Above the Dark Circus" by Hugh Walpole and "The Valley of Fear" by Arthur Conan Doyle and enjoyed both.  But the covers are significant to me because they are stamped Dursley Secondary School.  They were presented as school prizes to my father by his father, who was the first headmaster of Dursley School.