In the bicentennial year of Dickens’s birth, three authors discuss the lasting influence of his work, particularly on young people’s literature. Christopher Edge is a Dickens fan and author of the Victorian thriller Twelve Minutes to Midnight; Philip Pullman is author of the Dickensian Sally Lockhart quartet; and J D Sharpe has introduced the paranormal to Dickens in Oliver Twisted. The event is chaired by publisher Marion Dickens Lloyd, great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens.