CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870), born in Portsmouth, he was the son of a clerk in de Navy pay office. A period of intense misery affected him during the imprisonment of his father for debt in the Marshalsea and he himself worked in a blacking warehouse. Memories of this period inspired much of his fiction, particularly the atmosphere of 'David Copperfield'. After that, he worked as an office boy, studied shorthand, and became reporter of debates in the Commons for the Morning Chronicle and other per