"Charles Dickens is not feeling the Christmas spirit. His newest book is an utter flop, the critics have turned against him, relatives near and far hound him for money. While his wife plans a lavish holiday party for their ever-expanding family and circle of friends, Dickens has visions of the poor house. But when his publishers try to blackmail him into writing a Christmas book to save them all from financial ruin, he refuses ... On one of his long...

"Charles Dickens' dog Timber tells the story of his life with the great writer."--

Jack and Annie travel back to Victorian London when Merlin asks them to use their magic to inspire Charles Dickens to write "A Christmas Carol."

In an alternative version of Victorian London, seventeen-year-old Dodger, a cunning and cheeky street urchin, unexpectedly rises in life when he saves a mysterious girl, meets Charles Dickens, and unintentionally puts a stop to the murders of Sweeny Todd.

"In creating my [the author's] own story of Alfred and Dorothea Gibson, I have taken a novelist's liberties as I explored an imaginative path through their relationship. ... Inspired by "threads of Dickens's own preoccupations with things strange, romantic, and melodramatic rather than realistic ... at times, characters from his novels make a transmuted appearance as characters in his life. ... Above all, in Dorothea Gibson I have tried to give voice...