A Christmas Carol is the gift that keeps on giving

It was November 1843, two years after Prince Albert first introduced Britain to the tradition of the Christmas tree. Charles Dickens was 31, and yet to grow his beard. A dire report on child labour the previous year had worked him up into a compassionate rage. Just as pressingly, Dickens needed cash. The author was already famous for The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist, but the public was struggling with Martin Chuzzlewit and, to top it off, his wife Catherine was pregnant again.

Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in six weeks, amid explosions of laughter and tears at his desk. He knew straight away it was his best work yet, and commissioned a fancy edition to celebrate, complete with gold-edged paper and hand-coloured pictures. It was published on 19 December and had sold out by Christmas Eve, but the book was very expensive to manufacture, and profits were meagre. It was also immediately pirated, although when Dickens sued for damages, the pirates went bankrupt, leaving him to foot the legal bills.