The Dickens, you say...yes, in London

Charles Dickens' desk

Finishing A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, which I read most of in trip to England and Scotland. Bought the book at Shakespeare and Company bookstore in Paris 11 years ago. Fitting. Here's where he wrote most of it. We journeyed on The Tube and foot to visit his somewhat non-descript house and now museum in London...his desk, and beside it, the appropriate wastebasket. 
Stepping in here is as though you just missed him, having stepped out for a brew at a pub. I love that you can see he wrote with pen and ink, the way I write best.

One of Dickens' manuscripts.

He's a favorite of mine, a testament to what a journalist ought to be. Alas, no mention in the four storey museum of his young mistress who he fell in love with and shaped much of his life. No wonder the 2013 movie is called "The Invisible Woman."

A drawing of Dickens at his desk and his characters

 

Any writer is a reader--some of Dickens' books