Gradgrind ""Gradgrind, a character in "Hard Times," who weighs and measures everything by a hard and fast rule and makes no allowances. "" (from the Gurenberg Project's version). Gradgrind Mr Thomas Gradgrind is the notorious school board Superintendent in Dickens's novel "Hard Times" who is dedicated to the pursuit of profitable enterprise. His name is now used generically to refer to someone who is hard and only concerned with cold facts and numbers. In the story, the man himself he was the father of five children, naming them after prominent utilitarians such as Robert Malthus. He also ran a model school
Francis Dickens twelve years in Canada, only "edited" by Nicol. It is still frequently mistaken for non-fiction. Frank Dickens also appears in the science fiction novel that deals with the NWMP in an alternative history, "The Apparition Trail" (2004) by Lisa Smedman. In the novels "The Winnipeg Wolf" and "The Search for Spade" belonging to the "Inspector Bucket NWMP" series by Jeremy Allen the leading character, Francis Bucket, is based on Francis Dickens. He is played by Joe Prospero in the TV mini-series "". In 2007 a Fringe festival play called "Dickens of the Mounted" based on Nicol's novel toured several Canadian