Charles Dickens, journalist and author, was born on 7 February 1812 at 13 Mile End Terrace, Portsea, Portsmouth. He was the second child and eldest son of John Dickens, an assistant clerk in the naval pay offices, and his wife Elizabeth (née Barrow).

Dickens’ early childhood was spent in Kent, firstly at Sheerness and then at Chatham. In 1822 the family moved to Camden, where John Dicken’s poor financial circumstances led to him being committed to the Marshelsea debtors’ prison. He was sent to work in a factory, Warren's Blacking Warehouse, where he earned six shillings a week pasting labels on to jars of shoe polish.

In 1825, following his father’s release from prison, Charles Dickens was enrolled at Wellington House Classical and Commercial Academy on Hampstead Road. From May 1827 to November 1828 he worked as a solicitor’s clerk, after which he became a journalist. His first literary work was published in the Monthly Magazine in December 1833. In 1836 he found fame with the publication of The Pickwick Papers, and subsequently became one of the most famous and popular literary figures of the Victorian age. His works included more than a dozen major novels, many short stories, several plays, several non-fiction books, and individual essays and articles.

Dickens married Catherine Hogarth (1816-1879) on 2 April 1846. They separated in 1858.

On 9 June 1865 Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash. He was returning from Paris when the train he was travelling in was de-railed by engineering works. Ten people were killed. Dickens was severely affected by this traumatic event and afterwards became nervous of rail travel. Despite this, he continued to use the railway to fulfil engagements on his popular reading tours.

Dickens died on 9 June 1870 (the anniversary of the Staplehurst accident) at his home, Gad’s Hill Place, Heigham, Kent, and was buried at Westminster Abbey on 14 June 1870.