200th anniversary of author’s birth on 7th February. The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby stamps revealed ahead of official issue. Full set of ten stamps to be issued in June. Also available in June will be a Miniature Sheet featuring four stamps. Oliver Twist and David Copperfield also featured in June issue

The Royal Mail has revealed a sneak peak of two stamps - officially launching in the summer to celebrate the bicentenary of the novelist’s birth.

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Celebrations are taking place today to mark the bicentenary of the world-renowned author, who lived and died at Gad’s Hill Place, Higham, now Gad’s Hill Independent School.

Each stamp features illustrations from his first novel, The Pickwick Papers (originally serialised and entitled The Posthumous Papers of

Pickwick) and his 1838 novel, Nicholas Nickleby.

The character of Mr Pickwick forms a set of six stamps featuring original illustrations adapted from Character Sketches from Charles Dickens, by Joseph Clayton Clarke (otherwise known as Kyd) and originally published around 1890).

The Nicholas Nickleby stamp will be part of a special Miniature Sheet of four stamps of illustrations by Hablot Knight Brown, (known as Phiz ), who illustrated ten books by the author.

Philip Parker, from Royal Mail Stamps, said: “Charles Dickens was one of the truly great British novelists, a man born into poor circumstances who went on to change the world in which he lived thanks not just to his novels, but his campaigning journalism and philanthropy.”

The full set of 10 new stamps will be issued on June 19 and will feature iconic characters from some of his most famous novels, including Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cities.

Dickens his first novel The Pickwick Papers was published was published in 1836 and his best-selling novel, A Tale of Two Cities, has sold more 200 million copies.

Between 1992 and 2003 Dickens was featured on the reverse of the Bank of England £10 note together with a scene from The Pickwick Papers.