His books include Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist and Dombey and Son.
Dickens is associated with London, writing about some of its worst and most corrupt institutions, often wandering the capital city’s streets at night thinking about plots for his novels.
But he travelled across the country and abroad, delivering lectures and theatrical productions.
7. Leeds
The first recorded visit made by Dickens to Leeds was when he chaired a meeting at Leeds Mechanics’ Institute in December 1847. He shared the platform with engineer George Stephenson. He was given a standing ovation after giving a speech on education, one of his favourite topics. Another ten years later Dickens returned with The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices. He was not a fan of Leeds, arriving at the station – branded “a little rotten platform” – into a city “I particularly detest as an odious place”.
8. Malton
Given his opinion of Halifax and Harrogate was also less than flattering, it is a wonder Dickens’ ever left home! Dickens’ brother Alfred and his family lived at Norton, near Malton, Alfred involved in building the York to Scarborough Railway in July 1843. Dickens and his wife stayed at Easthorpe Hall, Malton, with his friend Charles Smithson, a solicitor and model for Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.
9. Dickens travelled across Yorkshire
He visited Smithson regularly and was complimentary about his surroundings. In a letter to academic Cornelius C Felton, he told how he visited "remarkable" Kirkham Abbey. “Ah, Heaven! Such green woods as I was rambling among”. Dickens and the North is published by Grayswood Press.