Literary tile: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Gary kindly brought these Dutch tiles to my attention:

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Stave 1: Marley's Ghost

The fireplace was an old one, built by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures. There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters, Queens of Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air on clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts; and yet that face of Marley, seven years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a
blank at first, with power to shape some picture on its surface from the disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have been a copy of old Marley's head on every one.

'Humbug!' said Scrooge; and walked across the room.

Literary brick: You're a brick, Angela

Alan Fisk has suggested I include:

You're a brick, Angela! by Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig

Thank you Alan :-)

This leads me to wonder about calling people a brick - more later ...

Literary brick: Heny VI Part 2, Shakespeare

Unfortunately, bricks do not lend themselves easily to St Valentine's Day, so this scene from a Shakespeare play (not even from Romeo & Juliet!) will have to suffice:

Henry VI, Part 2 by Shakespeare

Act 4. Scene II
SCENE II. Blackheath

...

CADE
Ay, there's the question; but I say, 'tis true:
The elder of them, being put to nurse,
Was by a beggar-woman stolen away;
And, ignorant of his birth and parentage,
Became a bricklayer when he came to age:
His son am I; deny it, if you can.

DICK
Nay, 'tis too true; therefore he shall be king.

SMITH
Sir, he made a chimney in my father's house, and
the bricks are alive at this day to testify it;
therefore deny it not.

...

Literary brickmaker: Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe owned brickworks and also made pantiles. It was only later that he turned to writing his novels, Robinson Crusoe & Moll Flanders.

Literary bricklayers: Ben Jonson

Thanks to Sarah for this information: playwright Ben Jonson was a bricklayer for a short time. But it didn't suit him for some reason ... Can't imagine why!