Star Hotel, Great Yarmouth his tenure he made several improvements to the tavern, adding a billiard room and dining room to replace the stable block. In 1848 Charles Dickens visited and stayed in Great Yarmouth while gathering material for his book "David Copperfield" and many of the town's buildings have their place in the book including the "Star", which becomes the Inn where David and Steerforth stayed. In 1819, the "Star Tavern" was the Yarmouth terminus for the royal mail coach, which left for London every day at 2:00 pm. By 1845, the tavern was also the terminus for mail for Birmingham, and a
Charles Dickens In the same period, Dickens furthered his interest in the paranormal, becoming one of the early members of The Ghost Club. In June 1862, he was offered £10,000 for a reading tour of Australia. He was enthusiastic, and even planned a travel book, "The Uncommercial Traveller Upside Down", but ultimately decided against the tour. Two of his sons, Alfred D'Orsay Tennyson Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, migrated to Australia, Edward becoming a member of the Parliament of New South Wales as Member for Wilcannia between 1889 and 1894. On 9 June 1865, while returning from Paris with Ellen Ternan,