12 facts you didn’t know about Charles Dickens

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Today is the 201st anniversary of the birth of the incomparable Charles Dickens. Yet there’s a lot of facts about him that you probably didn’t know – such as that he once performed under the name Rhia Rhama Rhoos, and had a pet raven that you can now see in Philadelphia.
1 ‘What the Dickens’ predates him by a few centuries: Its first recorded use is in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor – ‘Dickens’ was a euphemism for ‘devil’.
2 He had a pet raven called ‘Grip’: After it died, he had it stuffed – you can see it here. It’s now on display in Philadelphia.
3 His first published fiction: His first published fiction was “A Dinner at Poplar Walk,” published in Monthly Magazine. He wrote it aged 21, while working as a reporter at The Morning Chronicle
4 He was mostly self-taught: He left school aged 15, when he had to take a job as a legal clerk to support his family.
5 He had a secret study: In his house, he had a door built to look like a bookcase, behind which he hid a secret room.
6 He named one of his sons after another writer: His youngest son was Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, named after the author who infamously started one of his books, “It was a dark and stormy night.” The writer Bulwer Lytton and Dickens were friends.
7 Pickwick spinoffs: His first serial, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (aka Pickwick Papers), was so popular during its release that unofficial commercial spinoffs soon proliferated, including Pickwick pastries and Fat Boy sweets.
8 He loved nicknames: He had a number of different nicknames for himself, including “The Sparkler of Albion”, “Revolver” and “The Inimitable.” He also gave his children nicknames including “Chickenstalker” and “Skittles.”
9 He loved magic: He once performed a conjuring show on the Isle of Wight for friends, with the stage name “The Unparalleled Necromancer Rhia Rhama Rhoos, educated cabalistically in the Orange Groves of Salamanca and the Ocean Caves of Alum Bay.”
10 He knew shorthand: His first business card had his occupation listed as “Short Hand Writer.” He got it made at some point between the age of 17 and 19.
11 His writing overlapped: He started Oliver Twist when halfway through Pickwick Papers, and Nicholas Nickleby halfway through Oliver Twist.
12 He loved cold showers: While overseeing renovations to a new house, he wrote that “a Cold Shower of the best quality, always charged to an unlimited extent, has become a necessary of life to me.”