'Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.' Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

"The cheerful poverty of the Cratchit family in A Christmas Carol, is a sure-fire tear-jerker. At one public reading by Dickens in Boston, there were "so many pocket handkerchiefs it looked as if a snowstorm had gotten into the hall" Sunday Express "It has it all: a spooky ghost story, a heartwarming redemption and a great plot with a satisfyingly ending" The Times "A story which, perhaps more than any other, sums up the spirit of the British Christmas" Sunday Telegraph "One of the great achievements of British culture" -- D.J. Taylor "But that story endures and retains the power to move us because it speaks to the human heart, and gives us hope when hope is fading" -- Tony Parsons Mirror