Q 01/05

In which city was Charles Dickens born in 1812?

A) Portsmouth

B) London

C) Rochester

D) Chatham

Answer · why

A) Portsmouth

His father John was a clerk in the Navy Pay Office; the family moved to Chatham when Charles was four.

Q 02/05

Dickens's godfather Christopher Huffam, a Royal Navy rigger, is thought to have inspired which character?

A) Mr Micawber

B) Samuel Pickwick

C) Paul Dombey

D) Daniel Quilp

Answer · why

C) Paul Dombey

Huffam ran an established firm; Dombey and Son's Paul Dombey owns a shipping company.

Q 03/05

Which performer, whose memoirs he later edited, did a seven-year-old Dickens see in Rochester?

A) Edmund Kean, the actor

B) Joseph Grimaldi, the clown

C) Charles Mathews, the comedian

D) Madame Vestris, the singer

Answer · why

B) Joseph Grimaldi, the clown

He imitated Grimaldi's clowning on several occasions in later life.

Q 04/05

To which debtors' prison was John Dickens sent in 1824?

A) Newgate

B) The Fleet

C) The King's Bench

D) The Marshalsea

Answer · why

D) The Marshalsea

His wife and youngest children joined him there, as was the custom; Dickens later set Little Dorrit in the prison.

Q 05/05

How much a week did the 12-year-old Dickens earn pasting labels at Warren's Blacking Warehouse?

A) Two shillings

B) Ten shillings

C) A guinea

D) Six shillings

Answer · why

D) Six shillings

He worked ten-hour days near what is now Charing Cross station, in a rat-infested house on Hungerford Stairs.