Dickens’ wife, Catherine, was also a published author

In 1824, Catherine and her family moved to England from Edinburgh, Scotland, where Catherine was born in 1815. She was the oldest daughter and eleventh child of George Hogarth. Her father first worked as a writer and music critic for the Morning Chronicle, which later hired young journalist Charles Dickens as editor. He had previously worked as a reporter for the Edinburgh Courant. Dickens invited Catherine, a stunning 19-year-old, to his birthday party for his 23rd year since he was instantly smitten with her. Catherine and Dickens were married on April 2, 1836, at St. Luke's Church in Chelsea after becoming engaged in 1835. Their honeymoon was spent at Chalk, a Kent community near to Chatham. They finally had eleven children and acquired a home in Bloomsbury.

Charles wrote at the time that he would never be as content as he was in that tiny flat with Catherine, even if he were to become wealthy and renowned. His wife Catherine published her novel in 1851. Like Charles Dickens, she wrote under a pseudonym. She made up Lady Maria Clutterbuck as a pen name. Dinner options were provided in Catherine's book of culinary instructions. The title of the book was What Shall We Have For Dinner. There were meal recipes in this book for two to eighteen people. Sadly, Dickens' biographer used the book to her disadvantage by claiming that the meals she served for him were dismal.

Modern critics of the book too had something to say about it. They found the menu as being too laden. Meals such as fricassee chicken, fried potatoes, marrow pudding, macaroni and cheese, a lot of bacon, and Italian cream; to be too much since people didn’t eat everything at the table. She has been blamed for Victorian cooking, which has itself been misrepresented.