Monica Dickens was much more than the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens and the woman who gained fame with books based on in their own experiences in working life.
At the end of it all, it was a woman who with his letters and open spirit she helped save the lives of many people, being both an acclaimed author, and the creator of several anti-suicide organizations.
In 1970 he began writing the popular children's series Follyfoot, saying, "I want to entertain, tell the truth, try to help people understand other people."
Monica was born in London in a victorian house Kensington. His father was Henry Charles Dickens and had a very sheltered childhood. Because of his rebellious spirit, Dickens was expelled from a private girls' school in London because she would not wear a school uniform.
After studying at St. Paul's School for Girls, she traveled abroad, and although writing was not her first vocation, she continued her studies at a drama school, from where she was expelled "for not being able to act".
Surprisingly, Dickens left high society and took manual laborSo she decided to work as a cook, housemaid, babysitter, cocktail and banquet waitress, and so on. She worked twenty jobs in two years, occasionally working 14-hour days.
Dickens began his career as a novelist with several autobiographical works. His first book One Pair of Hands (1939), he wrote it in three weeks. The idea for the work was suggested by Charles Pick, a London publishing house clerk, who told her to recount her experiences as a cook and general servant.
With humor and scathing commentary, Dickens portrayed the delicate and ongoing war between the rich and their servants. He also worked on the autobiographical novel Mariana (1940), which was the story of a young woman, whose husband is at war, and who looks back on her past. The Sunday Telegraph described the book as "funny, moving and a perfect period piece."
After the outbreak of the Segunda Guerra Mundial, Monica Dickens joined a hospital in Windsor, Berkshireas a nursing student. Before returning to a hospital, she repaired engines for a year Rolls-Royce Spitfire for combat aircraft.
He later married in 1951 with Roy Stratton, a US Navy officer United States, who accompanied her to write two detective novels. Beside her, Dickens moved to the United States. When her husband retired from the Navy in 1953, she moved with him to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. At the same time, Dickens continued to incorporate firsthand experiences in his novels with No More Meadows (1953) y Kate and Emma (1964), which arose directly from his involvement in the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
In that time, Dickens worked with various charities and founded the first American branch of samaritans (the suicide prevention organization) at Massachusetts in 1974. One of his projects was the construction of suicide barriers on the Bourne and Sagamore bridges across the Cape Cod.
Until her husband's death in 1985, Dickens lived in Cape Cod. After selling the house in North Falmouth, he returned to England and settled in Brightwalton, Berkshire. His later works included Closed at Dusk (1990) A story of revenge y scarred (1991), about a man who believes that plastic surgery can solve all his problems.
In the late 1990s, Dickens fell ill with colon cancer. His last novel was One of the Family, which was published posthumously in 1993. Dickens died on December 25, 1992, at the age of 77, in a hospital in Reading, England.
