Cricket in fiction was particularly true in the era before the Second World War, for example, during the Edwardian era, and in the 1920s and 1930s. An early chapter of Dickens's famous first novel "The Pickwick Papers", serialised as early as 1836, features a brief description of a cricket match between the All-Muggleton team and the Dingley Dell Cricket Club. Mr Pickwick watches as Mr Jingle provides a running commentary on the game (""Capital game—smart sport—fine exercise—very"" is a typical Jingle comment.) Cricket also plays a prominent part in "Tom Brown's Schooldays" (1857), Thomas Hughes' classic novel of life at Rugby. A century
Cedric Charles Dickens the Caribbean by banana boat, Dickens joined the British Tabulating Machine Company in 1937. Dickens joined the RNVR on the outbreak of World War II in 1939, leaving the Royal Navy in 1946 as a First Lieutenant. While serving in Portsmouth he met his wife Elizabeth Mary Blake (1913–2008), who was serving as a WREN, and whom he married in 1948. After leaving the Royal Navy, Dickens returned to his old firm, which eventually became ICL, and where he became Director of Communication. He was a lifelong supporter of the Charles Dickens Museum in Holborn. He was twice President of