Charles Dickens built a public image as one of Victorian Britain's great literary and moral figures. Behind it sat a relationship he worked hard to keep secret.
In 1857, the forty-five-year-old Dickens met young actress Ellen Lawless Ternan. She was eighteen - and, intriguingly for Kent, had been born in Rochester.
Dickens' marriage to Catherine was already under strain. The following year they separated after twenty-two years and ten children.
His relationship with Ellen remained carefully guarded. Much of their correspondence was destroyed, leaving historians to piece the story together from surviving fragments and contemporary accounts.
Then came a moment when the secret nearly burst into public view.
In 1865 Dickens survived the terrible Staplehurst rail crash in Kent. Ten passengers died. Ellen and her mother had been travelling with him, but Dickens avoided publicly acknowledging their presence and the Victorian public remained unaware of the relationship.
Dickens and Ellen reportedly remained close for thirteen years, until his death in 1870. He left her £1,000 in his will and established a trust for her.
One of Britain's most famous storytellers had managed to keep one of the biggest stories of his own life largely out of public view.
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