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
Charles Dickens Jr. months rest due to overwork. As the centenary of their grandfather's birth approached, the reduced circumstances of Charles Jr.'s daughters led to a public fundraising appeal. On 7 January 1912 a gala performance, where 'leading actors and actresses appeared as Dickens' characters' at the London Coliseum raised £2500, while a separate appeal by "The Daily Telegraph" added an additional £3882. By the close of the fund in March 1912 it held £12,000, which was to provide £150 per year to each of the daughters. Author Lucinda Hawksley, a descendant of the elder Charles Dickens, has written that 'the girls' begging