Last week the world celebrated the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens who was born on February 7, 1812 in England. Many events were organised by the BBC including the broadcast of 24 hours of readings from his work. This was an hourly series of readings that went for the entire day at a different hour in 24 countries, arranged so that one followed the other on each hour of the day. That was to mark the international appeal of the author as well as his own public readings of his work which were very popular and successful in the later years of his life.
Dickens (February 1812-June 1870) is worth celebrating because of his achievements as the foremost Victorian novelist and one of the greatest of all English writers. His work is of universal and lasting relevance and is in demand today as much as it was during his lifetime. He is extremely