How Dickens started his reading career with A Christmas Carol - a reading he did for charity - in Birmingham Town Hall.
Dickens first love wasn't writing, it was acting. In this programme we look at Dickens love of acting and the theatre.
How Dickens began his professional career reading for his own profit initiating a new and brilliant phase in his career.
We look at how in 1867 Charles Dickens embarked on an exhausting 19 week tour of America as one of the world's first 'celebrity authors'.
In October 1868 Charles Dickens farewell tour began but had to be cut short on account of his failing health.