Two hundred and four years ago, on the 7th of February in 1812, Charles Dickens was born in the city of Portsmouth. An unhappy child, but a voracious reader, Dickens started writing for a newspaper and went on to create some of the most memorable characters in world’s literature. The world would certainly have been less exciting without his books, so today we invite you to play a little guessing game with your intermediate students. DID YOU KNOW? Here are some of the words that Charles Dickens coined: The creeps – a feeling of fear and revulsion, is from David Copperfield (1850) “She was constantly complaining of the cold and of its occasioning a visitation in her back which she called ‘the creeps‘.” Devil-may-care as reckless or jovial in manner comes from The Pickwick Papers (1837) “Not that this would have worried him much, anyway—he was a mighty free and easy, roving, devil-may-care sort of person, was my uncle, gentlemen.” Abuzz as full of activity or gossip if from A Tale of Two Cities (1859) “The court was all astir and a-buzz, when the black sheep—whom many fell away from in dread—pressed him into an obscure corner among the crowd.” Get the conversation going with this useful Dickens Warmer. Download here.