Contributors

Charles Dickens was born on 7th February 1812 in Portsmouth and grew up in London and Kent. His father was sent to a debtor's prison following financial difficulties and the young Dickens was sent temporarily to work in a boot blacking factory, until an inheritance allowed his return to school – however, he never forgot this formative experience. Dickens wrote many novels including A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations. A leading celebrity of the Victorian Age, his short story The Signalman was likely based on a crash involving a train that Dickens was travelling on, with his mistress. Charles Dickens died in 1870.

David Dickson is Professor in Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin and has published extensively on the social, economic and cultural history of Ireland. He was elected a Member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2006.

Dr Bella DePaulo is an acclaimed social scientist, author and leading expert on single life. She lectures internationally and has been featured in The New York Times, Time, the Atlantic and the Guardian. She is currently an academic affiliate at the University of California.

Dr Mikel Maria Delgado is a cat behaviour consultant and animal behaviour scientist. She is co-author, with Jackson Galaxy, of the book Total Cat Mojo. Her research on cat behaviour has appeared in cat journals and veterinary textbooks, and she has been featured in The New York Times and the BBC, among other outlets.

Max Décharné was a member of the band Gallon Drunk, and has been with The Flaming Stars since 1994. An authority on the 1950s and 1960s counterculture, he is the author of Vulgar Tongues: An Alternative History of British Slang, as well as A Rocket in My Pocket and Hardboiled Hollywood . He lives in London.

Daniel Davies was born near Birmingham in 1973 to a Welsh father and a Polish-German mother. He was educated at comprehensive schools, and the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia. He has lived in Prague, Sydney and Barcelona, and is currently based in London. His novel, The Isle of Dogs, was shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writers Award and translated into several languages.