Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

One of the most famous of all English writers, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7th February 1812. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. His early childhood was very happy.

He went to a good school and he was an excellent student. But when he was 12 years old, his father went to prison, because he owed a lot of money to other people. All Charles' family went to live in the prison apart from Charles. Charles went to live with a family friend called Mrs Roylance and he worked 10 hours every day at a shoe polish factory.

Portsmouth nowadays

Charles worked hard, but he hated the factory. It was dirty and there were lots of rats. After a few months, John Dickens' grandmother died, so he inherited some money. John could pay the money he owed, so the Dickens family left the prison. Charles left the factory, because he could go to school again.

When he left school, Charles worked in an office. He left after a year and a half because he wanted to be a reporter.

His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was published in March 1836, but it wasn't in a book. It was in a magazine. In 1836 he got married and he and his wife, Catherine, had ten children. In his life he published lots of novels, short stories, plays and non-fiction books too. He died in 1870.

He wrote a very famous story called a Christmas Carol.