Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and became the most popular novelist of the Victorian era.

A prolific writer, he published more than a dozen novels in his lifetime, including Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and Hard Times, most of which have been adapted many times over for radio, stage and screen.

Tess Newall was born in 1987 and when she is not sewing miniature tweed caps or paving tiny cobbled streets, she works as a freelance set designer on a variety of scales for fashion, film, events and window displays. She lives in London.

Alex Goodwin was born in 1985 and has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, where he surprised his classmates with the news that his first book would feature guinea pigs in bonnets and top hats. He lives in London.