1812
Born in Portsmouth on February 7
1824
The young Charles has to leave school because his father (as was Mr Micawber) is imprisoned in Marshalsea for debt; works in a blacking factory for three years
1827
Starts job as clerk to an attorney
1830
Falls in love with Maria Beadnell, but her parents disapprove
1832
Misses an important audition at Covent Garden due to a cold
1833
Starts as journalist at The Mirror of Parliament and The True Sun; becomes Parliamentary journalist for the Morning Chronicle; publishes sketches under pseudonym ‘Boz’
1836
Marries Catherine Hogarth, whose father is his sketch editor; publishes the first chapters of The Pickwick Papers
1837
Charles, the first of 10 children, is born; family moves to 48, Doughty Street, Bloomsbury; starts publishing Oliver Twist
1838
Visits schools in Yorkshire as research for Nicholas Nickleby
1840
Starts publishing The Old Curiosity Shop
1841
Barnaby Rudge is published
1842
Travels to America; starts Martin Chuzzlewit
1843
A Christmas Carol is published
1846
Starts Dombey and Son
1847
Founds a home for fallen women
1849
Starts David Copperfield
1851
Daughter Dora dies at eight months
1852
Starts Bleak House
1854
Hard Times is serialised in Household Words
1855
Starts Little Dorrit
1856
Works with Wilkie Collins on a play, The Frozen Deep; buys Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, a property he had admired as a child
1857
Falls in love with 18-year-old actress Ellen Ternan, who is in The Frozen Deep cast
1858
Estranged from Catherine
1859
Publishes A Tale of Two Cities
1860
Mysteriously burns 20 years’ worth of papers in a bonfire at Gad’s Hill Place; starts Great Expectations
1863
Starts Our Mutual Friend
1864
Son Walter dies in India
1865
Travels back from Paris by rail, but the train derails at Staplehurst, Kent, on June 9. Tends the wounded and dying
1867
Second reading tour of America; dines with the likes of Emerson and Longfellow
1869
After a series of collapses, is ordered by doctor to stop his reading tour; starts writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood (but never finishes)
1870
Resumes reading tour, but dies aged 58 on June 9 from a stroke and is buried in Westminster Abbey
The perennial fascination with snow at Christmas, and how it's all down to Charles Dickens and the Little Ice Age
Snow at Christmas is a rare sight across most of Britain, yet it’s indelibly intertwined in the collective imagination. Felicity
Curious Questions: Why do we say 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Happy Christmas'?
Have you ever stopped to wonder why we say 'Merry Christmas' when for every other occasion we use the word
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The Airlander wants to save our skiesA new hybrid aircraft promises eco-friendly aviation. Designed and built in the UK, can it be the future of air travel?
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Why don't we know how long the UK coastline is?Welcome to the Coastline Paradox, where trying to find an accurate answer is more of a hindrance than a help.
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How to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth. Here are exhibitions, events and more — happening across the UK — that mark the occasion.
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Unputdownable: 12 page turners to see you through the rest of the winterFrom cookbooks to cricket, biographies to Sunday Times bestsellers, Country Life contributors name some of their favourite books from last year.
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J.R.R. Tolkien: The life and times of the lord of the booksFrom a sentence born of an exhausting teaching job, J. R. R. Tolkien crafted a series of fantastical novels that, 50 years on from his death, still loom as large in our imagination as Sauron’s all-seeing eye, says Matthew Dennison.
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Thomas Hardy's Wessex vs the real-life Dorset: Which bits are real, which dreams, and which are exact to the last stream and stileThomas Hardy’s depictions of a fictional Wessex and his own dear Dorset are more accurate than they may at first appear, says Susan Owens.
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The English villages that are hotbeds of murder, intrigue and endless summer days — at least in the minds of novelistsComforting yet complex, intriguing and alluring, the village setting is territory to which writers — and readers — will return again and again. Flora Watkins looks at how the customs, characters and communities of the English village have long sparked literary inspiration, from Jane Austen to Midsomer Murders.
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With love from Father Christmas: J.R.R. Tolkien's enchanting Christmas letters to his childrenFor nearly a quarter of a century, J. R. R. Tolkien sent his children elaborate letters and pictures from the North Pole. Ben Lerwill explores the penmanship, kindness and magic that went into Letters From Father Christmas.
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The best characters created Charles Dickens, still utterly unforgettable even 150 years after his deathCharles Dickens died 150 years ago, on 9 June 1870. Since then, Mr Micawber has become a byword for optimism, Scrooge for meanness and Uriah Heep for obsequiousness, and we still quote Mr Bumble’s ‘the law is an ass’. Rupert Godsal explains why these characters are so exuberantly unforgettable.
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In Focus: The greatest books ever written about theatre, as chosen by Michael BillingtonMichael Billington has been the theatre critic for Country Life (and several other publications) for decades. With theatres closed, he's turned his hand to picking out his 10 favourite books about theatrical life.
