He is as notorious today as he was when he was introduced to the reading public in December 1843 – the “pressing, tearing, grasping, scratching, clinging, greedy, old sinner!”. at the heart of A Christmas Carol.

But if Ebenezer Scrooge is a feat of literary imagination, it’s less well known that the character had a real-life inspiration. John Elwes was a man so tight-fisted that he made Charles Dickens’ creation look somewhat amateurish. Eighteenth-century landowner, real estate developer and sometime Member of Parliament, Elwes was famous himself, an exceptional miser whose frugality made him a figure of national fascination and ridicule.

For example, Elwes chose not to polish his shoes in case it would wear them out faster. He hated buying food so much that he once took a half-eaten moorhen from a rat that had pulled it out of a pond. And he lived in ragged clothes, including an old wig he found in a hedge.

He went to bed at dusk, considered candles an extravagance, and if anyone brave enough to visit him would have to share a fire from a single stick, sometimes contenting himself with a glass of wine between two.

British MP John Elwes was a truly miserly man who proved to be the inspiration for the iconic character at the heart of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol

Few would dine with him, as he bought a carcass and “ate it to the last stage of putrefaction, flesh spilling on his plate,” according to one guest. After supper he snuck over to the stables to remove the hay the groom had left for visiting horses to save for his own. Traveling to Westminster from his Berkshire constituency, he refused to stand up for a carriage, preferring to ride a shaggy pony.

To save on horseshoes, he stuck to soft verges rather than the road, packed a boiled egg in his pocket to ensure he didn’t have to buy a meal at a tavern, and slept under hedges.

Paying for rides on the private turnpikes – the toll roads of the day (so called because of the turnstile that allowed access) – was out of the question for Elwes. Some took pity on him and threw a coin or two in his direction, mistaking him for a poor man. Like Scrooge, Elwes was very wealthy but not too proud to keep the pennies thrown his way.

He was so mean that once, when he injured both his legs and fell over in the dark, he allowed a pharmacist to only treat one. He spotted an opportunity and wisely bet that the untreated leg would heal faster than the treated one. He turned out to be right. The untreated one reportedly healed a fortnight faster and Elwes recovered his fee from the pharmacist – at the cost of considerable agony, it was said.

When he died in 1789, John Elwes was now worth £36.5 million. He owned a picturesque country estate with an imposing manor house in the village of Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk; a 100-home London property empire; and had several bulging bank accounts.

Elwes’ father was a wealthy brewer, the son of a London MP. What, then, could explain his thrift? One answer is that it ran in the family, as both his mother, granddaughter of a Suffolk baronet, and her mother, sister of the Earl of Bristol, had been famous penny pinchers. His uncle Sir Hervey Elwes was also a well-known miser.

But if Ebenezer Scrooge is a feat of literary imagination, it’s less well known that the character had a real-life inspiration

In any case, John Elwes took obsessive meanness to such heights that it captured the imagination of Dickens, Britain’s master storyteller, half a century after his death.

The contrast between Elwe’s vast fortune and his frugality was a source of fascination for Dickens, and we see the same contradiction in the life of Scrooge. He, too, is portrayed as a banker of considerable funds who chooses to live in starving, frozen misery.

There seems little doubt that Dickens relied on Elwes to inform A Christmas Carol.

The author even included him in the plot of a later novel, mentioning him by name in Our Mutual Friend, published in 1865.

On January 18th of the same year the author had written from his home, Gads Hill Place near Rochester, Kent, requesting delivery of a book – Merryweather’s Lives And Anecdotes Of Misers – which contained a fruity chapter on Elwes.

“If you can get Merryweather or anything else that will give me the reference remedy I want, buy it for me and please send down a messenger,” he wrote. ‘I’ll be saved a lot of hassle and delay if I can get what I want here tomorrow.’

Dickens got the book and never parted with it. It was in his library when he died.

The life and crazy habits of Elwes were also chronicled in a biography by journalist and playwright Edward Topham. This book, a bestseller published around the time of Dickens’ birth in 1812, kept alive the stories that made Elwes a legend in Suffolk and Westminster during his lifetime.

Professor Leon Litvack of Queen’s University, Belfast, is Editor-in-Chief of the Charles Dickens Letters Project, which collects the author’s extensive correspondence. He says the similarities between Scrooge and Elwes are clear.

For example, Elwes’ refusal to consider the weather so that it would not incur a cost is echoed in Scrooge’s insensitivity to heat and cold.

“No heat could warm him, no winter weather could cool him,” says Dickens.

Many Dickens experts believe that the illustrator John Leech based his sketches of Scrooge in the first edition of A Christmas Carol on contemporary portraits and etchings by Elwes. ‘You can see [Elwes] has the exaggerated facial features that we associate with Scrooge, the long nose, the gaunt face, the pointed chin, the famous grimace,” says Prof. Litvack.

Many Dickens experts believe that the illustrator John Leech based his sketches of Scrooge in the first edition of A Christmas Carol on contemporary portraits and etchings by Elwes

“It is believed that Leech used one of them to create his own likeness of Scrooge that these sketches are the incarnation of Elwes.”

Professor Michael Slater, adviser to the Dickens Museum in London and Dickens biographer, agrees.

“Dickens liked eccentrics and colorful characters that found their way into his writing,” he says.

“His great characters – Scrooge, Mr Pickwick, Fagin – they all have traits of people he’s met or heard of in real life. That’s what Dickens did with it in his novels, that’s his genius.

“And we know he was familiar with John Elwes because Elwes would later appear in Our Mutual Friend.”

A Christmas Carol is one of the most dramatized of all Dickens novels, the latest version being the newly published Spirited. With Ryan Reynolds as Clint Briggs, a cynical and amoral New York media communications man, the musical has given the story a Hollywood makeover. Will Ferrell plays the ghost of Christmas Present and Dame Judi Dench has a cameo appearance.

Perhaps the most famous portrayals are by Alastair Sim in the 1951 film Scrooge and Albert Finney in the 1970 musical adaptation of the same name.

The only glaring difference between Elwes and the character he inspired is that he needed no lessons in kindness or compassion. For all his eccentricities, Elwes was known as a decent man, a moral MP, and a loyal and forgiving friend. Edward Topham wrote of him: ‘His public character lives upon him pure and without blemish. In his private life he was mainly an enemy of himself. He lent much to others; he denies himself everything.’

Scrooge must be frightened into generosity by the ghosts of Christmas past, present and to come.

Elwe’s unusual life began with a family tragedy when he was orphaned at the age of five or six. His father died first, followed closely by his mother. From them he inherited the basis of his fortune and then a second, even more substantial sum from his eccentric uncle, Sir Hervey Elwes, a baronet and MP for the market town of Sudbury in Suffolk.

His own stingy nature resulted in his roof leaking, his windows being repaired with paper, him eating poorly, and then being caught and killed mostly game on his own estate. At night he paced to keep warm instead of starting a fire. He taught his nephew all he knew about saving, and when he died unmarried with no heirs in 1763, he left his fortune to Elwes.

Elwes became MP in 1772, by which time he was also a successful real estate developer and responsible for parts of Regency London that still exist today: Marylebone, Portman Place, Oxford Circus and Piccadilly.

He did not maintain his own household in the capital, preferring to settle in one of his many estates that were temporarily vacant. Elwes never married, believing marriage would be too expensive, but he had two sons, George and John, with his housekeeper in Berkshire.

In 1784 he retired from public life to spend more time with his money, but without the distraction of his parliamentary work his obsessive thrift escalated.

It is said that at Stoke-by-Clare he slept with his horses in the stables to save himself having to make a fire in the house.

Elwes died in bed in November 1789, dressed in cloak, hat and shoes, that miser of a man who inspired a story that still enchants the world every Christmas today.

All’s well that ends well. Lady Susan Hussey has apologized to charity boss Ngozi Fulani for asking her where she is from at a reception at Buckingham Palace and the pair were pictured together, Lady Susan beaming with appropriate enthusiasm at Ms Fulani, the latter smiling graciously at the camera .

They will now focus on rebuilding their lives in peace after the “disturbing” past few weeks, the palace said.

In Ms Fulani’s case, that means returning to work at her domestic violence charity, Sistah Space, which provides shelter and support to women and girls of African descent, and recovering from the “tide of abuse” the Palace said she was subjected to on social media.

For Lady Susan, she must come to terms with losing a role she has faithfully fulfilled for six decades, and overcome the stigma and personal hardship of being unfairly branded a racist by her own godson, Prince William.

All’s well that ends well. Lady Susan Hussey has apologized to charity boss Ngozi Fulani for asking her where she was from at a reception at Buckingham Palace and the two have been pictured together

They will now focus on rebuilding their lives in peace after the “disturbing” past few weeks, the palace said

Luckily she’s too old to be on social media because if she had been she sure would have been abused like Ms Fulani, if not worse. Next to pedophilia, there is nothing worse than racism.

The Prince of Wales rarely makes a mistake, but his treatment of his godmother when this whole thing first blew up a few weeks ago was disappointing to say the least.

In any case, express your regret and concern that Mrs Fulani was offended by what Lady Susan said to her and the way in which she said it, but by issuing a statement stating it said, “Racism has no place in our society,” effectively condemning her directly from this heinous crime. As her godson, however, he would have known that was highly unlikely. He would have known that she is a regular worshiper at a church in Southwark, where the congregation is 90 percent black and where Lady Susan is a much-loved member of the congregation, described by a (black) member as “a beautiful, beautiful.” Woman’.

He would also have known that Lady Susan is quite hard of hearing at her age (83) and therefore might struggle in a very crowded room with many people talking loudly to each other, which is why she keeps asking Ms. Fulani the same question as it older deaf people do.

He might also have guessed that Lady Susan, upon encountering someone wearing what appeared to be a national dress and presumably a veteran of numerous diplomatic events attended by foreign dignitaries from various Commonwealth countries, was Mrs Susan such a person might have mistaken for one, in which case asking about their origin would have been no more than a necessary courtesy.

In Ms Fulani’s case, it means returning to the work of her domestic violence charity, Sistah Space, which provides shelter and support to women and girls of African descent

The Prince of Wales rarely makes a mistake, but his treatment of his godmother when this whole thing first blew up a few weeks ago was disappointing to say the least

But no. Afraid of being tarred by association, and no doubt terrified by his own brother’s allegations of institutionalized prejudice within the royal family, Prince William not only got carried away by the crowd roaring for his godmother’s blood, but also contributed to hers slander at.

Instead of saying, as he could very easily have done, that he was surprised and regretted to hear of Ms Fulani’s ordeal, but that knowing Lady Susan, as he had done all his life, it was unthinkable that she should have been intentionally racist, or words to With that effect he threw her to the wolves.

Which also demonstrates a certain lack of character, but when you think about it, it’s a bit ironic. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince William of all people should know exactly how it feels to be publicly accused of something as grotesque as racism when the whole world is questioning his moral integrity.

And when someone like him, with all his influence and privilege, can’t find the courage to stand up for his godmother, that’s very worrying. Really very worrying.

But even more worrying is the statement the palace issued last week following Lady Susan and Ms Fulani’s joyful reconciliation.

Specifically this line: “Lady Susan has pledged to increase her awareness of the sensitivities involved and is grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the issues in this area.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t help feeling that there’s something pretty frightening about that statement. Something slightly reminiscent of the kind of sinister language used by totalitarian regimes like Maoist China, a subtle but clear expression of intolerance towards anyone or anything that deviates from the accepted political (in this case politically correct) narrative.

This, of course, is also an idea that exists at the heart of extreme rousing, the kind now endemic to many American universities and slowly but surely catching on in Britain as well.

In any case, please express your regret and concern that Mrs Fulani was offended by what Lady Susan said to her and the way she said it

The notion that while a person might believe they are not racist, not transphobic and so on, and even if their actions and behavior would suggest it, the circumstances of their existence – too white, also too middle-class educated, too male , too old, too wealthy etc. – make something like that materially impossible.

And that if you refuse to admit your own biases, you need immediate ridding of that misunderstanding.

It is precisely this concept of “re-education” that is at the heart of the Palace’s statement, the idea that Lady Susan willingly agreed to undergo a self-examination to fully grasp the extent of her own failure, and humbled is grateful for the opportunity. How will this “opportunity” present itself, one wonders? At the age of 83, how will Lady Susan learn to think and behave correctly in the tried and tested way of the modern working world?

Is there somewhere deep in the bowels of Buckingham Palace a newly refurbished Room 101 where bewildered courtiers are being persuaded by whatever means to admit to thoughts and actions they have never thought of? At what point are we all brought to express our gratitude for sparing ourselves the trouble of having to think for ourselves? When we learn to accept that 2+2=5 when the right person says it is?

The palace is also at pains to stress that Lady Susan “chosen to step aside” – another slightly Orwellian expression – and was not fired. But of course she did. She would have been horrified at the prospect of doing any harm to the institution she has served all her life. And she’s not of the generation I’ll get my lawyer for you.

And that perhaps gets to the heart of the problem. Being a victim is big business these days. Just ask Harry and Meghan, who managed to turn their poor little selves into a full-time career, and a lucrative one at that. Every misjudgment, every mistake, every misunderstanding – they bear no responsibility for that, because they are only helpless victims of prejudice and envy of others.

When in doubt, be a victim, that’s the mantra of the modern world. Your parents, your employer, your siblings, some poor old woman who got the wrong end of the stick…

Resilience, steadfastness, loyalty and common sense: you belong to another time. The revolution is here, and you’d better stick to the program — or face a long and harrowing march to your newfound “freedom.”

‘I’ll never find love after what he did to me’: A woman raped by Gary Glitter aged 10 reveals she cried after being told of the pop pedophile’s imminent sacking after just eight years behind bars

• Former pop star Gary Glitter, 78, has been jailed for 16 years but is set to be released
• His crimes included having sex with a 13-year-old girl and attempting to rape an 8-year-old child
• Ms D, who spoke to the Mail on Sunday, was only ten when Glitter abused her

By Sam Merriman and Simon Parry for The Mail On Sunday

Published: 22:06 GMT, 17 December 2022 | Updated: 22:06 GMT, 17 December 2022

A woman who was raped by Gary Glitter when she was 10 cried when she found out he was about to be released after only serving half his sentence – declaring: “I’m still serving one lifelong prison sentence.”

Glitter, 78, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for monstrous crimes against children in 2015 but is due to be released early in the New Year after just eight years behind bars.

One of his victims, “Ms D,” was ten years old when Glitter repeatedly abused her at his Vietnam mansion in 2005. Last night, she vowed to take the wealthy former pop star to court in a lawsuit for damages.

She said: “He can now enjoy his money and his life, but I live every day of my life with what this man did to me.”

EVIL: Gary Glitter with 10-year-old victim “Ms D” in Vietnam in 2005. Above: The former pop star at the time of his trial in 2015

Glitter – real name Paul Gadd – was jailed in February 2015 for crimes between 1975 and 1980.

His crimes included having sex with a girl under the age of 13, attempting to rape an eight-year-old and molesting a third girl.

He received a “certain sentence,” meaning his expected release early next year — almost exactly eight years after he was handed a 16-year sentence on February 5, 2015 — will not be independently scrutinized for the risk he poses to the public represents.

In sentencing Glitter, Judge Alistair McCreath said he wished he could have jailed the pedophile longer but was constrained by felony sentencing guidelines in the 1970s.

Sources at the Department of Justice have reportedly said Gary Glitter, 70, real name Paul Gadd, would be released as early as February 2023

Glitter, who was also sentenced to four months in prison in 1999 for possessing child abuse images, lured Ms D. to his villa in Vietnam, where he subjected her to a horrific catalog of abuse. She bravely testified against him, along with a 12-year-old victim, and Glitter was jailed for three years before being deported back to the UK.

Ms D, now 27, reacted with shock yesterday when she was told Glitter would soon be released from prison. She said she still has nightmares about Glitter’s abuse and lives in fear of being linked to the notorious case in a country where female abuse victims are often stigmatized.

“I will never find anyone to love me and because of what happened I will never be able to get married. No man here will accept anyone with my past,” she said of her home in the rural Mekong Delta.

Ms. D. hopes Glitter will ever be banned from travel again. “There were many other victims in Vietnam besides me,” she said. “He should never be allowed to leave England again because he is a very dangerous man and he will do bad things again.”

Glitter, who still owns property in London and previously lived in a £2million mansion in Marylebone, is likely to face restrictions, including an ankle mark, on his release.

The former pop star (pictured on TV show Lift Off in 1974) was convicted of one attempted rape, four counts of indecent assault and one sexual act with a girl under 13

Gabrielle Shaw, executive director of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: “These are in no way ‘historic’ crimes as survivors live with the consequences every day.”

Once one of the brightest girls in her class, Ms. D. dropped out of school after her ordeal at the age of 14. Her mother never recovered from the shock of what happened and suffered a stroke that left her partially paralyzed.

Her family struggles on an income of £157 a month and can barely afford the rent of their modest tin-roofed house as Ms D’s mother was forced to stop working.

A Justice Department spokesman said: “Sex offenders released from custody are closely monitored by both the police and the probation service and may be recalled to prison if they violate their strict licensing terms.”

It’s a family affair!

Jeff Bezos, 58, and his longtime girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, 52, enjoyed a lavish dinner at Nobu in Malibu with their son Nikko Gonzalez, 21.

Sanchez looked glamorous in a skin-tight brown ribbed dress as she held hands with her billionaire lover, who is worth an estimated $111 billion.

Bezos also wore a chic tan suit that matched his girlfriend with a white t-shirt singlet, while Gonzalez wore a white and black striped sweater to mitigate the chill of the winter months.

They appeared to be having dinner with two other young women, who were seen walking into the restaurant with them.

Last month, in the couple’s first double interview, they revealed their typical Saturday night was dinner and a movie with their kids. The pair – who both have children from previous relationships – have seven children in total.

“We can be kind of boring,” Sanchez told CNN. “Normally I would say. We have dinner with the kids. It’s always fun and a great conversation. There are seven of us, so there is a lot of discussion. And then we’ll see a movie… by committee. It takes a long time to find this film.’

Jeff Bezos, 58, and his longtime girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, 52, (pictured together) enjoyed a lavish dinner at Nobu in Malibu with their son Nikko Gonzalez, 21

Sanchez looked glamorous in a skin-tight brown ribbed dress as she held hands with her billionaire boyfriend, who is worth an estimated $111 billion. Bezos also wore a smart tan suit that matched his girlfriend, with a white t-shirt underneath

The couple put on a love show as they headed into the fancy restaurant

“We probably spend more time picking the movie than we need to,” Bezos added at the time.

The low-key dinner is a dramatic change from Sanchez’s big birthday bash last week, which saw her party with the likes of Kim and Kris Kardashian.

The Black Ops Aviation founder, who turns 53 on December 19, met with more than a dozen of her friends in Malibu, California for a lunch in her honor before heading to SoFi Stadium to celebrate the Los Angeles Watching the Rams play the Las Vegas Raiders on December 8.

Sanchez posted photos from her early birthday party on both her Instagram feed and Stories, including her helicopter cake – a tribute to her piloting skills and her aerial photography company.

In one of the snaps, the birthday girl poses with Kardashian, 42, who wore long blonde hair and a camouflaged t-shirt with matching flared pants.

They sat in front of their birthday cake, which was topped with a purple number 25 helicopter.

Gonzalez (right) wore a cream and black striped sweater to temper the chill of the winter months

They appeared to be having dinner with two other young women, who were seen walking into the restaurant with them

“Hottest 25th Birthday – We all LOVE you” was written in fondant letters on the side of the confection.

Other celebrity guests included designer Kimora Lee Simmons, actress Sara Foster, jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer, Baby2Baby co-CEO Kelly Sawyer and beauty mogul Tina Chen Craig, and philanthropist Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, wife of billionaire investor Marc Andreessen.

Bezos recently announced that he will give away most of his wealth while he is alive, becoming the youngest billionaire to commit to donating much of his vast fortune.

The billionaire hasn’t revealed how — or to whom — he’ll be gifting the money, but said the couple is building the “capacity” to do so.

“The hard part is figuring out how to do it in a leveraged way,” Bezos said during the interview. ‘It is not easy. Building Amazon wasn’t easy. It took a lot of hard work and very smart teammates. And I find – and Lauren’s insight – that philanthropy is very similar. It is not easy. It’s really hard.’

Bezos has been criticized in the past for not signing the “Giving Pledge” campaign created by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage billionaires to donate the bulk of their wealth through philanthropy.

Bezo’s ex-wife McKenzie Scott — who shares four children with him — signed the pledge in 2019 and has since grown into a formidable force in the world of philanthropy, showering charities across the country with unexpected — and often secret — donations.

Last month, in the couple’s first double interview, they revealed their typical Saturday night was dinner and a movie with their kids

“We can be kind of boring,” Sanchez told CNN. “Normally I would say. We have dinner with the kids. It’s always fun and a great conversation.

Sanchez (pictured on Saturday) is preparing to turn 53 on May 19 and last week celebrated her birthday with the likes of Kim and Kris Kardashian

In the past three years, she has donated more than $12 billion to historically black colleges and universities, women’s rights groups and other charitable organizations — including donating two Beverly Hills properties totaling $55 million to a charity, which will use a large portion of the proceeds to house the homeless.

Bezos, who divorced Scott in 2019, resigned as Amazon CEO last year to devote more time to philanthropy and other projects.

Among other donations, he has pledged $10 billion to help fight climate change as part of his Bezos Earth Fund initiative.

According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, he gave $510.7 million to charity last year.

Last month, Bezos and Sanchez pledged $100 million to Dolly Parton to help bring access to books to children around the world.