Gradgrind 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 where young pupils were treated as machines pitchers which were to be filled to the brim with facts. This satirised Scottish philosopher James Mill who attempted to
Cedric Charles Dickens severe stroke following emergency surgery, and died on 11 February 2006 aged 89. His autobiography, "My Life", was published in 2016 to mark the centenary of his birth. Assembled from Dickens' own writings by his daughter Jane Monk and Marion Dickens Lloyd, the book has an introduction by Miriam Margolyes and was launched at the Charles Dickens Museum in September 2016. Cedric Charles Dickens Cedric David Charles Dickens (24 September 1916 – 11 February 2006) was an English author and businessman, and the last surviving great-grandson of Charles Dickens and steward of his literary legacy. Cedric "Ceddy" Dickens was the