Monica Dickens; Writing Books Ran in Family

Monica Dickens, a former domestic servant who followed in the footsteps of her great-grandfather Charles Dickens and wrote more than 50 books, has died at the age of 77.

Ms. Dickens lived in the United States for 35 years and opened the first American branch of the Samaritans, a worldwide volunteer organization that counsels the depressed and suicidal.

Clare Harrington, a spokeswoman for Ms. Dickens’ publisher, Viking, said Saturday that the author had cancer and was in Dunedin Hospital in Reading, 36 miles west of London, for an operation when she died on Christmas Day.

Born in London, the daughter of barrister Henry Charles Dickens was a debutante in the 1930s. But she rebelled against high society and went to work, first as a servant, then as a cook, a nurse and a newspaper reporter.

“It was an escape route for me,” she once said. “I have a great feeling for the bottom and the background of things.”

Ms. Dickens’ two years as a live-in servant inspired her first book, “One Pair Of Hands.” It was published in 1939, became a bestseller and established her reputation as a writer.

Being the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens created problems, she said, because no one else in the family was supposed to be a writer.

“Dickens was God,” Ms. Dickens once said. “It was like someone coming along after Christ and saying they were Christ, too.”

At age 35, she married U.S. Navy Cmdr. Roy Olin Stratton and moved to Cape Cod, Mass., where she lived until his death in 1985. She then returned to Britain and lived in a secluded cottage in Brightwalton, Berkshire, about 20 miles from Reading.

In the late 1960s, Ms. Dickens became involved in the Samaritans’ 24-hour telephone lifeline to anyone in need of a sympathetic ear. In 1974, she opened the first U.S. branch of the Samaritans in Boston. She later founded a second center in Falmouth on Cape Cod, where she said, “We feel our role is befriending, rather than counseling. . . . When you’re having trouble, you don’t want to hear someone telling you what to do.”

At 74, marking her 50th anniversary as a writer, she published “Enchantment.” The central character was based on British mass killer Michael Ryan, who was fascinated by outdoor survival.

She continued to produce a book a year until her death. Her latest book, “One Of The Family,” is scheduled for publication in May.