Re: PGCE questions

Charles Dickens (cdickens@RMPLC.CO.UK)
Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:34:46 -0100 

My Dear Miss Sarah and Mr Alistair,

  How quickly I respond to a question varies.  Sometimes it's within an hour
or two of receiving it.  Sometimes, particularly if my amenuensis, the
estimable Dr Parker, is away, it may be a week or two.  The average time
lapse, I should estimate, is a couple of days.
  I should think I receive, on average, three or four letters per week, but
the pattern, naturally varies.  During holidays I receive nothing.  I may
receive a dozen at a time, when a class is studying my books, and discovers
this manner of communicating with me.
  The funniest request I have received was also, in my judgment, among the
best.  Two American girls, thirteen or fourteen years old I think, demanded
to know why I always write about miserable things, why I dwell so much on
bad experiences in my childhood, why I can't be more optimistic.  "It would
be much better for you," they advised.  I like to think this was scarcely an
accurate reading of my books.  I have failed if I've not made many people
laugh repeatedly.  But it was at the same time a penetrating question about
an important thread running through my works, a penetrating question indeed
about fiction, and the craft of writing fiction.
  I found myself replying that problems are at the heart of fiction.  Unless
there is a problem to be solved, there is no story.  However much they do or
do not trouble me personally, the difficult experiences of my childhood are
among the problems I know best.  They are the materials nearest to hand for me.
  The lesson of this is, never supppose you are not learning when you are
laughing.


Faithfully yours,


Charles Dickens
__________________________________________________________________

>Dear Mr Dickens,
>
>We are two students on the PGCE course at Leeds University. We are doing IT
>as one of our subjects.
>We would like to know how qucikly it takes you to respond to a question.
>Can you also tell us how many letters you receive in an average week.
>What's the funniest request that you've ever been sent?
>How do you think this line you've set up helps English pupils.
>Thank you for your time
>Sarah and Alistair
>
>

======================
Charles Dickens
charles_dickens@rmplc.co.uk
Author