I’m quite ashamed to say that I have never read this book before – the only way I actually knew this story was from watching The Muppet’s Christmas Carol film each Christmas, but I’d never actually read the proper story. Somewhat more embarrassingly, I’ve never read a single Dickens book.

I’m going to rectify that situation next year, I’ve downloaded a lot of Dickens books onto my tablet so that I can catch up on what I have most definitely missed out on. If you’re a Dickens fan and you have any suggestions for which book I should read first, leave me a comment below and let me know – I’ll happily take any suggestions!

We all know the story of A Christmas Carol so I’m not going to delve too deep into that, but it’s a brilliant tale of redemption and how it’s never too late to change our ways. What I will say is that I loved the writing. This strange Victorian world so different from ours was brought to life so vibrantly on the page that you were just drawn into the book and I couldn’t stop reading.

The main disappointment for me was that the book was so short. Before I started reading (and having never read Dickens before) I had presumed that all Dickens books were long and beastly books, but I was very pleasantly surprised that, although short, the book was such a joy to read.

If you’ve never read this book and only ever heard the story through the films, I would strongly recommend that you pick up this book and give it a try this Christmas.

4 out of 5, but only because I wish it had been longer!