It’s ONE GIGANTIC SIZED BIRTHDAY CAKE this week for the man who, his biographer says, is “THE SECOND GREATEST CREATOR OF CHARACTERS IN ENGLISH AFTER SHAKESPEARE”. We are not sure whether the 200 year old Charles Dickens would consider the relegation to second place in the LEAGUE OF WRITERS a compliment or not but HE IS STILL HITTING THE HEADLINES because apparently the YOUNG FAIL THE DICKENS TEST – it doesn’t say whether they fail the SHAKESPEARE TEST as well but we are assuming so and it’s all because of a concentration issue – apparently we don’t concentrate as well as young people used to.
So in the interests of national posterity and preserving all things worthwhile we would like to suggest a solution that would help to maintain interest and prolong the lives of all dead writers and it is this. HELP THEM EMBRACE THE MODERN AGE …. … CHOP THEIR WORKS UP INTO BITESIZE BLOGS … then let them REST IN PEACE as we TWITTER about the merits of Scrooge and Hamlet. And we see no reason why Mr Bumble shouldn’t tease the reader with his very own FACEBOOK page where Jamie Oliver could offer a more tempting alternative to a bowl of gruel although we do have reservations about Angus Burton’s assumption that Shakespeare would SHAKE A CELEBRATORY SPEAR on being crowned the BLOGGING BARD.