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It’s A Wonderful Christmas Carol Life!
As we approach Christmas, I’m thinking about my favourite Christmas stories and films. For me, two of these are A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life.
A Christmas Carol is the well known festive tale by Charles Dickens. It was written in six weeks after Dickens had visited the Ragged School, an establishment for street children in London and he published the title before Christmas 1843.
Its themes of fairness, kindness and the transformation of Scrooge, a rich, but mean old man, into a generous benefactor to the Cratchit family at a time of great social inequality was well approved of by the public. The picture below is Alastair Sim in the 1951 film of A Christmas Carol asking a passing boy to buy a big Turkey for the Cratchit’s.
Published on 19 December 1843, the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve and by the end of 1844 thirteen editions had been released. From the 20th century and onwards, there have been many film and television adaptations of the story.
The fact that it still feels relevant in Britain over 170 years…
