Celebrated children’s writer Hans Christian Andersen arrives, unannounced, for a stay at Gad’s Hill Place in the Kent marshes – home to Charles Dickens and his large, charismatic family.

To the lonely and eccentric guest, the members of Dickens’ household seem to live a life of unreachable bliss. But with his broken English, Andersen doesn’t at first see the tensions within the family: undeclared passions, a son sent to fight in India, and a growing strangeness at the heart of Dickens’ marriage.

Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture won the 2008 Costa prize, and he has been twice shortlisted for the Booker prize. His plays include the international hit The Steward of Christendom, Our Lady of Sligo and Hinterland.