A Christmas carol - Charles Dickens

This classic seasonal tale of self-discovery has become one of Charles Dickens's most famous and best-loved works. On Christmas Eve the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is haunted by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who warns him that he will be visited by three spirits. During the night, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come show Scrooge the scenes of his youth, the poverty-stricken Christmas currently being endured by his loyal clerk Bob Cratchitt and his crippled son Tiny Tim - and the lonely future that awaits him if he continues in his grasping ways. He awakes on Christmas morning chastened by his nocturnal experiences, and resolves to be a better man.

This volume also includes Dickens's short story, 'A Christmas Tree', with its evocative description of the delights of the season, which provides perfect fireside reading once the gifts are unwrapped. With stunning, atmospheric illustrations that evoke Dickensian London at Christmas time, award-winning artist Robert Ingpen has worked his wonders on this timeless tale.

Charles Dickens began his career as a journalist, and his first fiction, a series of short stories called The Pickwick Papers, became a publishing phenomenon. Following its success, he went on to become one of the most important novelists of the nineteenth century. A passionate campaigner against poverty, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in response to a government report on the abuse of child labourers, vowing that he would strike a 'sledge-hammer blow… on behalf of the Poor Man's Child'.

Robert Ingpen was born in 1936 in Geelong, Australia, and still lives and works nearby in Barwon Heads. He studied illustration art and book design at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1986 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his contribution to children's literature and he has been honoured with Membership of the Order of Australia. A world-renowned artist and author, Ingpen has designed, illustrated and written more than one hundred books, including his highly acclaimed series of illustrated Children's Classics, which have now been published in many editions around the world.