He used to be a mere entertainer – now at his bicentenary he is 'the greatest'. Why should we elevate him above all others? The gravestone of Charles Dickens at Westminster Abbey is cleaned in preparation for a wreath-laying ceremony. Photograph: Peter M

Menus at restaurants such as at Heston Blumenthal's Dinner and Mark Hix's eateries now feature Victorian favourites blancmange and brown bread ice cream; and supermarkets are seeing an increase in sales of Victorian staples including Bakewell tart, cocon

At 11.15 on Tuesday there will be a celebratory wreath-laying at the resting place of the most famous novelist our country can boast. And when better to boast than the 200th anniversary of his birth, in the year which will also see a Diamond Jubilee and

Mr Davies’s planned BBC adaptations of Dombey and Son, one of Charles Dickens’ lesser-read stories, and of the Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope, were both scrapped in 2009. At the time, he accused the BBC of being too populist. His latest job for the

In death, Charles Dickens still keeps his greatest secret to himself — the essence of his energy. None of the physical relics he left behind betray it. The manuscripts of his novels — like Our Mutual Friend at the Morgan Library — look no more fevered or

LITTLE ROCK You can’t keep Anonymous down. The most recent heralded appearance of this ubiquitous author was as the title of a film that’s already faded, but not without kicking up debate about the claims of a band of Shakespeare Birthers that the real