Few British authors are more famous than Charles Dickens. The 19th century London writer, whose novels includes Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, popularised many words in the English language. Here are a few of them!

This historic shop is The Old Curiosity Shop in Holborn, which dates to 1567 and has a wooden roof made from old ship materials. It’s believed Dickens was inspired by this shop when he wrote his novel The Old Curiosity Shop.

The creeps: The modern-sounding phrase, the creeps, "a feeling of fear and revulsion," was coined by Dickens.

Doormat: noun used as a metaphor, meaning a person who is treated badly. From Great Expectations.

Flummox: To flummox means "to confuse or to perplex."

Red Tape: noun. Excessive regulation that prevents progress. First appeared in Bleak House (1852).

Round the clock: adverb and adjective, meaning all day and all night. From Bleak House.

Sandwich Board: A pair of advertising boards suspended from a person’s shoulders. First described in Sketches by Boz (1839).

Scrooge: noun. A mean, miserly person. Also a person who undergoes a transformation in character (from bad to good). Based on Ebenezer Scrooge. First appeared in A Christmas Carol (1843). Read What is the Origin of Scrooge?

What the dickens: In fact, this isn’t connected to Charles Dickens. It comes from Shakespeare, who is thought to have been referring to the devil in Merry Wives of Windsor (‘'I cannot tell what the dickens his name is’).