Like A Christmas Carol? Then you'll love Ghosts of Dickens, a book that tells the dramatic true story of how a washed-up, dead-broke, 31-year-old author named Charles Dickens found inspiration to invent Ebenezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim and save both his career and his life.


Introduction By The Author

This book originated as a screenplay. Like many people I’ve always loved A Christmas Carol, and after the cinematic success of “how a famous novel came to be” stories like Finding Neverland and Saving Mr. Banks, I decided to write this tale of what inspired Charles Dickens to create Ebenezer Scrooge, hoping it might one day become a movie.

I spent months heavily researching the subject matter, reading gigantic tomes covering every aspect of Dickens’s life and countless Dickens’s website articles. Then I spent more months writing and polishing the script, making it the best version of what actually happened. The people I asked to read it gave me excellent feedback, which I incorporated to improve it even more. Finally, confident in its prospects, I sent it out to several Hollywood literary managers for representation. One manager expressed enthusiastic interest, agreeing to represent me and the screenplay. She then tested the market by sending it out to a few of her industry contacts.

Unfortunately, the powers-that-be in Tinselton were hesitant. Would recreating 19th century Victorian London on film be cost-prohibitive? Was there enough global interest in Dickens and A Christmas Carol to justify the financial risk? Ultimately my manager advised that unless we secured a veteran producer or an A-list actor to play Dickens, it would be very difficult to make headway.

I was disheartened, partially because it didn’t look like the script would ever be produced, but also because the story of how A Christmas Carol came about is such an interesting one. I wanted other people to experience this tale and enjoy it as much as I did. Therefore, I decided to convert it into this book.

I truly enjoyed researching and writing on this topic, and I hope that you enjoy this remarkable true story (with only a few dramatic licenses taken) as much as I have.

Best,

Matt Bishop