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How Charles Dickens’ Last Christmas Turkey Dinner Was Ruined By A Mysterious Fire

The famous author really enjoyed eating turkey during the holidays, but his final yuletime dinner was ruined by a strange train accident

Andrew Martin
4 min readDec 18, 2022

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Charles Dickens remains one of the most widely read authors in the world despite having died 150 years ago. His vivid books and stories have become cultural icons spanning generations. One of the writer’s most memorable contributions is the way he connected spectacular turkey dinners to Christmas in some of his work. It was also a food he also enjoyed in real life. Sadly, in what proved to be his final Christmas, Dickens missed having his traditional turkey dinner because the big bird that had been shipped to him was destroyed in a mysterious fire.

Dickens, an Englishman, was born in 1812 in Portsmouth. His father was a simple clerk but was able to arrange for his eight children to be educated. In particular, Charles was a torrid reader, consuming whichever books he could lay his hands on. It was an early sign of his adult career as a legendary writer.

Beginning as a journalist, he gradually worked his way into writing short stories and then novels. Some of his titles remain books that are still nearly universally familiar, including…

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Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin

Written by Andrew Martin

Dabbler in soccer, history, investing & writing. Master’s degree in baseball history. Passionate about history, diversity, culture, sports, film and investing .

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