The Essay

Five contemporary novelists examine the craft of Dickens's prose, and reflect on how the giant of British nineteenth-century fiction is both a role model and a shadow looming over their own writing. Taking as their starting point a favourite extract from one of Dickens's novels, each writer discuss Dickens's themes, narrative techniques and writing craft, and tells us what they themselves have learnt from it. They offer thoughtful, unusually engaged and focused critical appreciation of Dickens's skill, as well as valuable insights into their own work and how they themselves wrestle with the subject and technique under discussion. In the final programme in the series, novelist Justin Cartwright reflects on the significant place Christmas occupies in Dickens's work, and argues that this is a direct result of his experiences as a child and not simply an expression of sentiment.First broadcast in December 2011.