Michael Slater is Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College in the University of London. He was editor of The Dickensian (1968-77) and President of the International Dickens Fellowship (1988-90). He has published many books and articles on Dickens. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was born in Campden Hill, London and educated at St Paul's School and the Slade School of Art and then made his name as a journalist. His first two books were volumes of verse and then in 1904 he wrote The Napoleon of Notting Hill. He followed this with studies of Dickens and Robert Browning and The Man Who Was Thursday. The first Father Brown book, The Innocence of Father Brown, appeared in 1911. In 1922 he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. During his life he produced more than a hundred books, including various religious writings, poetry and essays. He also illustrated the novels of his friend, Hilaire Belloc.
