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I had a kind of Dickensian childhood.

I was brought up on Dickens. I remember reading 'Bleak House' but, coming back to it, I didn't remember much about it apart from a few characters.

I didn't want to be stuck in Dickens period dramas because then I would never know if I was any good.

I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries.

I was terribly upset not to be in 'Dickensian,' so I pretend to look down on it. The part I should have played, Mrs. Gamp, is done brilliantly by Pauline Collins, but I entered this world for no other reason than to play that part.

We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.

Black people were very angry with me for writing the book. A lot of people didn't believe me, or didn't want to believe me, and that used to really bother me. It was a very painful and difficult time.

What can I say? I deal with it. I think I have come to terms with my absolutely hateful and vile childhood. No, I have, really. But I did hate it at the time. I resented it. There were elements of it that were positively Dickensian.

I'm totally obsessed with Dickens, and 'Great Expectations' was one of the first book's I read when I was still in school in Porthcawl.

I had this almost Dickensian look. I was quite fragile.