The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford

You see the way the story comes together… or doesn’t come together.Dickens, of course, is hearing them for the first time. This works in the film because we know A Christmas Carol so well that we recognise phrases like ‘an excuse to pick a man’s pocket every twenty fifth of December’ instantly. Words, phrases, names and images all get stored away in his magpie brain so that he can use them later.The scenes where he’s stalking around the room, trying out different sounds until he hits upon the right name for Scrooge or the right word to describe something is brilliant and very true to life.

He has to find his characters before he can write the story.Most writers I know go through this ‘oh my goodness, I’ll never be able to do it again’ feeling. The raw terror on his face when he tells Forster, his friend and sort-of-agent, is so familiar. While he’s in between books, Dickens starts to worry that he’s forgotten how to write.Given that all films are written by actual writers, very few of them show what it’s like to be a writer with any kind of accuracy. What makes this film so great isn’t so much the plot – although it’s good – but the way it depicts an author’s life. He has to go even further into debt to do so. Also, who would buy it: ‘Not much of a market for Christmas books, what?’Įventually, Dickens decides to fund it himself, so strongly does he believe in it. The publisher is sceptical that he can write anything that fast. In a fit of desperation, he says he will write a Christmas book. He’s fast running out of money and his publishers are running out of confidence. The story follows Charles Dickens who, after his massive success with Oliver Twist, had three flops in a row. What I didn’t expect was to love it quite as much as I did. I expected it to be amusing, maybe whimsical… and it had Dan Stevens in it. So, when I saw that The Man Who Invented Christmas was on Netflix, I had to watch it. The book that started it all was, of course, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They let me keep hold of that festive feeling in the dark, dark months before spring. I love a good Christmas novella – I pile them up on my Kindle and then binge read one a day from Boxing Day until mid January. Rhoda can be found on her website or on Twitter ( October, which means it’s time for the Christmas novellas to start coming out. Her latest Christmas novella is Snowed In. She also writes multicultural women’s fiction as Jeevani Charika. Rhoda writes contemporary romantic comedies about smart women and nice guy heroes. This guest review comes from Rhoda Baxter! If you’re looking to get cozy and into some holiday spirit, The Man Who Invented Christmas is a great movie suggestion.

The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford