Charles Dickens began his career as a journalist, and his first fiction, a series of short stories called The Pickwick Papers, became a publishing phenomenon. Following its success, he went on to become one of the most important novelists of the nineteenth century. A passionate campaigner against poverty, Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in response to a government report on the abuse of child labourers, vowing that he would strike a 'sledge-hammer blow... on behalf of the Poor Man's Child'. Robert Ingpen was born in 1936 in Geelong, Australia, and still lives and works nearby in Barwon Heads. He studied illustration art and book design at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. In 1986 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for his contribution to children's literature and he has been honoured with Membership of the Order of Australia. A world-renowned artist and author, Ingpen has designed, illustrated and written more than one hundred books, including his highly acclaimed series of illustrated Children's Classics, which have now been published in many editions around the world.