Six Degrees of Separation: From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, to …

O what a lovely starter book for #6Degrees this month, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol tra-la-la-la la, la-la-la!

I love Charles Dickens’ novels.  Unlike most people, I didn’t begin with A Christmas Carol or The Pickwick Papers, I began at age ten with A Child’s History of England, set as an eye exercise for me by an ophthalmologist who had specified that I had to read something with small print for 15 minutes every day.  My parents had the complete Odhams set in their distinctive red boards with an impossibly small font (size 8 or 9, I think), so that’s what I read!

(This edition also included under the title Christmas Stories, a rather un-Christmassy collection comprising

• The Seven Poor Travellers
• The Holly Tree
• The Wreck of the Golden Mary
• The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
• The Haunted House
• A Message from the Sea
• Tom Tiddler’s Ground
• Somebody’s Luggage
• Mrs…