Young Charles Dickens's happy childhood came to a sudden end when his father was jailed for debt and, aged 12, he was sent to work in a factory making shoe polish. By his mid twenties, he was on the verge of becoming the most popular novelist the world has ever known, creating hundreds of unforgettable characters, but Charles never forgot his days working alongside poor and abandoned orphans. Andrew Billen tells the gripping life story of Charles Dickens, explaining how it fed into his work, and how, along the way, he invented the modern idea of Christmas.

 

There are 160 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Short Books Ltd .

Andrew Billen is a feature writer on, and currently television critic of, The Times. He has worked on The Observer, the Standard and the New Statesman. His previous books include Sam Johnson, The Wonderful Word Doctor also for Short Books. He lives in Oxford, with his wife and young daughter.