Charles Dickens is considered to be one of the greatest writers of the English language and is known internationally. He was able to catch the feeling of everyday life on the streets of London and elsewhere in Victorian England.  The characters in his stories were not rich or famous, but poor and hungry people who lived on the street.
Dickens the boy
His Family lived in London, Dickens had eight brothers and sisters, but life was quite hard because his father was often in debt. His father had a good job as a naval clerk, but he often spent more money than he earned. Charles was good at school and his teachers thought he was very clever. But when Charles was only eleven years old, his father and all the family were sent to prison for debts. Therefore Charles had to go and work in a factory washing bottles. Life was miserable, he had to work ten hours a day and walk six kilometres to work every day. The experience was so bad, that Charles never forgot it and wrote about it in Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
His Early Years
At the age of sixteen Charles went to work for a newspaper, then later became a journalist for