Did you know that one of the world's most significant, most enduring, most revered ghost stories of all time has nothing to do with Halloween and everything to do with Christmas?

That's right, Charles Dickens, a Christmas Carol, might be one of the most famous ghost stories of all time, but we don't really think of it as a ghost story, do we? It is, though, there are lots of ghosts, at least four of them, in fact. The ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, and the spirit of Jacob Marley, the former business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. Poor old Scrooge gets the fright of his life in this classic tale. And on today's Saturday matinee, we're bringing you the first episode of a brand new telling of a Christmas Carol from the excellent noisor podcast, Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories. I hope you enjoy. While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories. I hope you enjoy. While you're listening, be sure to search

for and follow Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. It's Boxing Day 1843, and at an

Ableau-a-Pong-Sin'

A party is in full swing.

Smartly dressed Victorian revellers nibble on mince pies.

That's pies containing genuine minced meat as well as candid orange peel and spices.

They chink glasses of hot negus and smoking bishop,

elaborate mulled wine variants made from sweet, strong port. At one end of the cozy candlelit living room, a group of children sit cross-legged on the floor, utterly entranced by what they're seeing.

A charismatic magician is working through a well-rehearsed routine,

pulling coins from behind their ears,

baking a plum pudding out of raw eggs and flour in his top hat,

even magicing a live guinea pig out of thin air

before letting it scurry across the floor.

This magician is the host of the party this evening.

And it's not the first time that he's transfixed an audience,

though usually it's through another kind of magic entirely.

At 31 years old, he is, after all, the most successful writer of the era.

His name is Charles Dickens.

Show over, Dickens puts down his magician's props.

He picks up a glass of smoking bishop and settles into an armchair.

He looks around the room surveying his guests.

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