In October 2005 we held a "celebrity" internet chat and invited students to email in their questions to a virtual Charles Dickens, here is a sample of some of the questions asked:

Question from Ryan Gumm: What is it like writting books?

Dear Ryan

My experience leads me to believe that 'writting books' is very like writing books; which is to say, it is a labour long-drawn out and very involving. My wife's mother, Georgina Hogarth, once said of my working day that 'everything with Dickens went as by clockwork …' and my own son observed: 'no city clerk was ever more methodical or orderly than he; no humdrum, monotonous, conventional task could ever have been discharged with more punctuality or with more business-like regularity' than I gave to the writing of my novels.

I rose from my bed at seven every day, breakfasted always at eight, and worked at my desk from nine until two in the afternoon, after which I would go for a walk. My routine hardly ever changed. I also insisted upon absolute quiet, for I could not work with any noise of any kind anywhere in my house. I wrote with a goose-quill pen (have you ever seen such a kind of pen?) in blue ink upon pale-grey slips of paper approximately eight inches by seven. I usually wrote some two thousand words in a single day, and would continue working in this manner, every single day except Sundays, until the novel upon which I was working was complete. This might take anything up to two years.

I found writing to be fulfilling, but also exhausting. Do you fancy becoming a writer yourself?

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from David Steptowe: what book did you enjoy most writing?
and why? where did you get your ideas?

Dear David

Which book did I most enjoy writing? I was often asked this question during my life and always gave the same answer: my 'favourite child' amongst my books was David Copperfield, which I wrote between 1849 and 1850. Why? Because I made the story of David's life deliberately to be very close to the story of my own life, and this autobiographical fiction awakened all the memories within me of my own childhood and youth.
From where did I get my ideas? Why, from all around! From my own and others' lives; from walking the streets of London and observing the crowds of people. From fairy tales and great novels, from history and from my own imagination.

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Kate Reynolds: What did you gain from publishing your novels in installments, and are you aware that Stephen King is using the same technique?
 
Dear Kate

I believe Mr King, an American novelist of some distinction, published his novel The Green Mile in monthly instalments in 1999; but I have not heard of him issuing any of his other novels in this format.  I, on the other hand, issued all my novels, save only the short Christmas books (such as A Christmas Carol) in either monthly or weekly instalments.  For me this had many advantages.  It meant that I earned money whilst I was writing my novel (for the novels could be issued, part by part, whilst I was still composing them); it also enabled me to respond to reader's opinions of the books. In one of my novels, Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44) I learnt that some people were losing interest in the story, and, half-way through, I was able to send my main characters off to America to enliven the narrative!  Indeed, serialisation enabled me to structure and plan my novels somewhat after the manner of the soap operas which I believe you have upon your tele-vision devices in your day (a device which I believe even Mr King watches): to keep my readers interested with repeated cliff-hangers and fresh action every month.

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Sally Newton: Aren't you dead?!!!!

Dear Sally

I am indeed dead; I died in 1870 from a stroke, after a full day's writing at my house in Kent, Gad's Hill.  Of course it is true that, for many individuals, being dead acts as something of an impediment.  But in my case, and thanks to the strange powers of the Film Education website, I find myself still able to answer your questions.

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Jack: What was your most favarite book you wrote???

Dear Jack

I was often asked this question during my life and always gave the same answer: my 'favourite child' amongst my books was David Copperfield, which I wrote between 1849 and 1850.  Why?  Because I made the story of David's life deliberately to be very close to the story of my own life, and this autobiographical fiction awakened all the memories within me of my own childhood and youth.

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Annie Duval: Did Bleak house really exist?

Dear Annie

A friend called Mrs Cummings wrote me a letter asking a similar question in 1852, and I replied: 'I presume most writers of fiction write, partly from their imagination; and partly from their experience. I have had recourse to both sources.' Indeed there is no actual house anywhere in the United Kingdom called 'Bleak House'; that much was created from my imagination. And yet in portraying it I drew on my memories of real life, and several of the houses in the novel are based upon the houses of friends. Chesney Wold is a version of the country house of Richard Watson, a wealthy friend of mine; and Tulkinghorn's house in London is based upon the house of my best friend, John Forster.

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Katie Richardson: How did you think of the idea to write Oliver Twist?

Dear Katie.

I first had the idea for Oliver Twist whilst writing a series of shorter pieces of fiction in 1837, which were later collected as The Mudfog Papers. My first child was born on the 18th of January in that year, and this event brought the story of Oliver to my mind. I wrote to my friend Richard Bentley outlining the story and the character and admitting 'I have taken a great fancy to him-I hope he deserves it!'

Faithfully yours
Charles Dickens

Question from Peter O'Connell: What happened to Oliver when he grew up?

Dear Peter

Many people asked this same question when the novel first appeared. In the last chapter of that work I note only that Oliver, reunited with Mr Brownlow and Rose Maylie, lived happily ever after. 'Mr Brownlow adopted Oliver as his son' I say, and with their various friends they 'linked together a little society whose condition approached as nearly to one of perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world' (Oliver Twist, Chapter 53).

Other writers have attempted to write sequels to Oliver Twist, although I never did so myself. A writer called E.P. Woodcock published one in 1914; and in 1980 a writer called David Butler wrote a 13-part television drama entitled The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist. You can find out more about this here:

www.imdb.com/title/tt0397791/

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