Charles Dickens (Author)
Charles Dickens was born in Hampshire on February 7, 1812. His
father was a clerk in the navy pay office, who was well paid but
often ended up in financial troubles. When Dickens was twelve years
old he was send to work in a shoe polish factory because his family
had been taken to the debtors' prison. Fagin is named after a boy
Dickens disliked at the factory. His career as a writer of fiction
started in 1833 when his short stories and essays began to appear
in periodicals. The Pickwick Papers, his first commercial success,
was published in 1836. In the same year he married the daughter of
his friend George Hogarth, Catherine Hogarth. The serialisation of
Oliver Twist began in 1837 while The Pickwick Papers was still
running. Many other novels followed and The Old Curiosity Shop
brought Dickens international fame and he became a celebrity in
America as well as Britain. He separated from his wife in 1858.
Charles Dickens died on 9 June 1870, leaving his last novel, The
Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished. He is buried in Westminster
Abbey.
Peter Ackroyd (Introducer)
Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist,
poet and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction
bestsellers London- The Biography, Thames- Sacred River and London
Under; biographies of figures including Charles Dickens, William
Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume
history of England. He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the
Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James
Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset
Maugham Award and the South Bank Prize for Literature. He holds a
CBE for services to literature.
Gr 7-12-Dicken's tale of private lives and public events takes place in the unrest of the 1780's London. This BBC production includes a full cast, music, and sound effects.
Ask a Question About this Product More... |