God bless us, every one! On this day in 1843 Charles Dickens published his famous festive fiction A Christmas Carol, with illustrations from John Leech. The tale of Ebenezer Scrooge’s path to redemption thanks to a trio of spirits sold out by Christmas Eve (the run was 6,000 copies) and although subsequent editions and live readings cemented the story’s popularity, it made the author little profit. Since then it has undergone numerous theatrical and film interpretations, including the 1980s adaptation Scrooged, starring Bill Murray as a particularly hard-hearted New Yorker, and the Muppets version, which saw a singing Michael Caine in the lead role.
