Colin Murphy: Give the Christmas ghost story tradition a whirl and huddle closer together by the fire

"Marley was dead, to begin with.” As is clear from its opening line, the greatest Christmas story ever (well, apart from the original one) is a ghost story. To give it its full title: A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas .

Charles Dickens wrote his novella at speed. He was 31, desperately needed the money, and duly delivered it to the printer on December 2, 1843. Six thousand copies were printed by December 19 and had sold out by Christmas.



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