A struggling writer named Dickens makes his career and saves Christmas forever

“Dickens believed implicitly in the ability of mankind to better the lot of all and eliminate poverty and ignorance through will and hard work,” says The Man who Invented Christmas author Les Standiford. “For him that phrase was not a slogan, nor a dream, but a simple statement of fact.”

     The Man Who Invented Christmas is a biography of Charles Dickens. The year is 1843. You get immersed in Charles Dickens’ life. It’s the determination of one man who believed so much that he went above and beyond to make his vision a reality.One book changes a holiday forever, giving everyone what the true meaning of Christmas is.

     “I pointed to Finding Neverland when I was explaining to my publisher what I wanted to do,” says Standiford. “Tell the little known and inspiring story behind one of the most beloved stories in the world. “It took me about a year to research and write the book, and it was an utter pleasure from first to last.”

     “As I was finishing the book, and mulling on the astounding determination that Dickens displayed in getting the book finished and before the public, I was struck by the parallels between what drove him and the message of a certain young American politician of our own time,” says Standiford. “‘Yes, we can.’ Dickens himself was distrustful of organized politics and religion, but his unflagging social consciousness is what has kept every one of his books in print from the moment of their publication to this day.”

     “Two years ago, I got an email, one of those 'did you know that on this day' messages that fly around the Internet,” says Standiford. “This one came on the anniversary of the publication of A Christmas Carol back in 1843. This most popular Christmas story ever had been turned down originally by Dickens’ publishers. It got me intrigued that a writer of Dickens's stature would have a book of that caliber turned down. I wanted to find out how on earth that could have been.”

     “With a subject such as Dickens and a work as popular as A Christmas Carol, the object was not to try to find small details that had been overlooked so much as to recombine bits and pieces of information scattered in the record here and there,” says Standiford. “Much had been written previously about both the author and this book.  But my aim was to rearrange the material into the form of a dramatic narrative about a writer who saved his floundering career and changed the world in the process.”

     Les Standiford has written eighteen books, ten of them novels. He’s originally from small town of Cambridge in the hills of southeastern Ohio.  “Currently I’m living out my father’s dream,” says Standiford. “When I told him I was moving to south Florida, I knew that in his eyes, I’d finally arrived.”

     “The Canadian broadcasting corporation have put The Man Who Invented Christmas into development as a holiday feature,” says Standiford. “The target is Christmas 2009.” Standiford will be signing his book following a screening of the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol at the Everyman Cinema at 3:30pm in London on December 21 followed by a discussion.

     The Man who Invented Christmas is for anyone who loves historic details. How did Dickens invent Christmas with ghosts who lead Scrooge and the reader to learn the true meaning of Christmas? Although engaging, the book is a biography. It’s not told as a first-person adventure like Shakespeare in Love or Finding Neverland.