Remarkable chapters in the life of Charles Dickens who lived at Gads Hill in Higham until his death in 1870
Published: 06:00, 12 January 2021
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens - but often his life, and death, proved to be as engaging as some of his most famous literary works.
He had been writing the Mystery of Edwin Drood at his home of Gads Hill Place in Higham when he was hit by a stroke on the evening on June 8, 1870.
Charles Dickens, far right, in front of his Higham home - today it is Gad s Hill public school. Picture: Gad s Hill School
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From the pages of novels such as
Oliver Twist, Dickens savaged the injustices meted out to the impoverished – and at the top of his hit-list was the infamous New Poor Law
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“Please, Sir, I want some more.” Charles Dickens’ portrayal of Oliver Twist approaching the master and asking him, timorously, for a second helping of gruel is surely one of the most famous scenes in all of 19th-century literature.
When Dickens wrote these words in the 1830s, huge celebrity and vast fortune still lay in the future. Instead the author was thinking of the here and now – in particular, the plight of the most impoverished Britons. Dickens was determined to savage the terrible injustices he saw unfolding around him, and did that so effectively that he soon secured a reputation as a spokesman for the poor.