Can we have some more?

Britain marked the 200th anniversary of author Charles Dickens' birth Tuesday with events in his workplace London and his birthplace Portsmouth.

A host of luminaries - including Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and actor Ralph Fiennes - attended a ceremony at Westminster Abbey, laying a wreath at Dickens' grave.

"Despite the many years that have passed, Charles Dickens remains one of the greatest writers of the English language, who used his creative genius to campaign passionately for social justice," Prince Charles said at the ceremony. "The word Dickensian instantly conjures up a vivid picture of Victorian life with all its contrasts and intrigue, and his characterization is as fresh today as it was on the day it was written."

Actor Fiennes, who will star in the latest film version of "Great Expectations," attended that ceremony in Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner, reading an extract from "Bleak House."

Revelers in Portsmouth, the southern port city where the writer was born, took part in a street party, with actor Simon Callow reading from one of Dickens' works, "David Copperfield."

Best of times, worst of times

Dickens wrote about life in London mid-way through the 19th century, as the city was being transformed by the industrial revolution. He focused heavily on social injustice and the growing gap between rich and poor.

While writing for a wealthy, educated audience in the middle and upper classes, many of his most famous characters came from the city's underclass - be it Fagan the pickpocket gang leader, Pip the ambitious son of a blacksmith, or Oliver the orphan in a Victorian workhouse. Wealthier protagonists like cold-hearted industrialist Ebenezer Scrooge often embarked on voyages of discovery, later to develop more philanthropic approaches to their lives. His books are credited with raising awareness of the plight of London's poorest and kick-starting the movement towards improved social justice in the modern world.

"You only have to look around our society and everything he wrote in the 1840s is still relevant," Dickens' biographer Claire Tomalin said. "The great gulf between the rich and poor, corrupt financiers, corrupt members of parliament… You name it, he said it."

A celebrity in his own time, paid by the word to write serialized stories for newspapers that were later published as novels, Dickens is also famed for a rather lengthy, verbose writing style.

msh/ccp (AFP, AP, dpa)