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Home , A House to Let

Sebastian Faulks FROM MICHAEL DARLING BRISTOL AND CLIFTON DICKENS SOCIETY Of his mother, Faulks says: 'My (Susan Ham’s Brother) mother knew all of Dickens backwards. Those characters were real people to her.' "Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine." Dick Swiveller - The Old Curiosity Shop. NEWSLETTER And Dickens had a great influence on Faulks himself: "Let us be merry. It is a poor heart that never rejoices," Special Bicentenary Edition 'After university (Cambridge) he Mr Pecksniff - Martin Chuzzlewit. APRIL 2012 spent a year in Bristol writing a novel. "From the age of about Dear Lionel, As President of the Bristol and fourteen I had made up my mind. Although I am not Clifton Dickens Society, I was I was inspired by Dickens and D. able to be with you H. Lawrence among others. I set for the Dickens invited to represent our members my heart on being a novelist at Birthday party on at two prestigious events in that young age". the 7th, I thought I London to celebrate the life of would send you Charles Dickens. There have and the members been many celebrations all over Miriam Margolyes of the Society my the world, and in our society we On “Desert Island Discs”, having best wishes for a had a wonderful party at Lionel's just announced that she was very happy day house on the actual day of the gay, Miriam Margolyes said: “I do celebrating "the anniversary of Dickens's birth, have a man in my life, though - Immortal Memory". Tuesday 7th February 2012. It his name is Charles Dickens”. Susan keeps me in was very well attended, and once touch with the again Liz made a wonderful Society's activities birthday cake. Excerpt from a letter from a and it looks as if Polish friend: you are going to have a busy year. I couldn't resist sending you this card of Lincolnshire's very own Old Curiosity Shop (in Stamford, I believe) .... There were readings on 6th "As you mentioned 'A Christmas yes, it is an impostor, but probably one you don't know about. February at Red Maids Junior Carol' by Charles Dickens, I must School - which was having a Dickens week - and we watched a dramatic concert involving children of all admit it is my most favourite After two hundred years Dickens' reputation is no longer in doubt. He ages: very exciting. On the morning of the 7th our group read in the Central Library, and Lionel appeared novel by him. In the English towers over nineteenth century English literature and with the passing of course within Poznan U3A we on television; and on the Saturday I spoke about our society on Radio Bristol. It was a very busy week. the years we get to understand him more clearly for to quote Dickens in have been discussing, with a true "The Seven Poor Travellers" 'Our whole life ... is a story more or less delight, how the writer perfectly The following week, on Monday February 13th I went with my daughter, Sarah, to London where we intelligible - generally less; but we shall read it by a calmer light when it knew human characters, needs stayed at a very special hotel for two nights. It was an amazing privilege to have been asked to attend is ended.' and weaknesses. We read in an the Guildhall in the Livery Hall in the evening for a talk by Claire Tomalin about her book, 'Charles article that he managed to Dickens - A Life'. this was followed by a reception in the Crypts where an orchestra played while we Ann and I are going to London to visit Dickensian sights and the exhibition awaken social conscience by the at the Museum of London at the beginning of March for a few days. We were offered drinks and canapes. It was good to meet so many people and to see the Lord Mayor of story of Tiny Tim, and inspire hope to take in some of the celebrations through the year (hopefully the London and all his retinue in full regalia. people to become more sensitive Dinner at the Clifton Club?). I'm enclosing flyers for the Dickens events to disabled children, what was we've had here, including one I hoped to organise at the Watermill I'm In the evening of the following day I took a taxi to Buckingham Palace. I had heard that there would be rather unpopular in the Victorian working at. 300 guests and that people were coming from all over the world. As you would expect, I was nervous epoch. The descriptions of the as I was on my own. However, once inside and going up the staircase, I saw people from other four ghosts indicate on his great Have a good day on 7th. imagination and psychological branches. Everyone had felt as I had. It was such a relief to meet old friends. The atmosphere was knowledge. """ FS Regards - Michael Darling very happy. We congregated in the Picture Gallery where there were a number of tables exhibiting items about Dickens from the Royal Collection. Here we were plied with drinks and delicious canapes . Soon we Bristol & Clifton Dickens Society were asked to hand in our glasses and progress to the Blue Drawing room where we were announced and met with handshakes by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Everyone was welcomed and we (www.dickens-society.org) were able to say a few words. It was something I never thought I would do. We then chatted to people Applications for membership (£15 per year) should be sent to and there were many celebrities whom I recognised. Liz Croucher at 38 Church Road, Easton-in-Gordano, Bristol BS20 0NB The next day was the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace - but being rather tired after all COPY DATE FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER - 24th JULY 2012 the excitement, I did not go down with Sarah! Contact Frankie or Eve with your news Home again in the afternoon. It was good to reflect on a wonderful celebration and to be very happy that Frankie Sahni, 71 Maple Road, Horfield, BRISTOL BS7 8RE the Bristol and Clifton Dickens Society is so vibrant and that so many of us are reading Dickens and Eve Fitt: 19 Berkeley Road, Bishopston, Bristol BS7 8HF keeping his memory green in the present day."" " " " Sally Draper Fry

Under this Roof 'HARD TIMES' AND 'WHAT THE DICKENS' EXHIBITIONS - PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE The Tobacco Factory

The Old Vic Theatre School The exhibition “Dickens and London” is still on at The Museum of staged an excellent production London. This building I didn’t know. It is easily walkable from St Paul’s of 'Hard Times' at the Tobacco Cathedral - you go through “Little Britain” on your way. The museum, a Factory in December. Despite modern building, came into being at roughly the same time as The their youth, the cast portrayed Barbican development took place. It concentrates on things to do with The programme for Doors touched. All spoke of her blankets, many of these made the older and more staid London, hence the title of this exhibition - well worth a visit. Open Day on the tenth of attentive listening, her respect from hand knitted squares in characters extremely well, the I was lucky, earlier in the year, to get to the - free - “A Hankering After September 2011 featured some towards each person and her bright colours. One further characters of Bounderby and Mrs Sparsit being exceptionally Ghosts” exhibition at The British Library. It concentrated on anything new venues, open to the public great kindness, combined with storage area was for foods: good. Inevitably a long book connected with the supernatural, for example The Ghost Club - founded in here were supplies of such for the first time. One of these a firm, no nonsense approach. has to be condensed to be 1836, whose members included at different times, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the Julian Trust Night Many had thought of her as a basic necessities as tea bags, presented as a stage play, and and W B Yeats: Mesmerism and animal magnetism - a supposed Shelter in Little Bishop Street, personal friend; their love and pasta, rice and everyday tinned this can often lead to a thin, magnetic fluid believed to be present in all human beings, which could be St. Paul’s. This seemed to me respect for her was very foods such as baked beans 'bare-bones' plot. The talented manipulated by the mesmerist: The Terrific Register, a penny weekly which included stories of murder, ghosts cannibalism: and so on... a very interesting opportunity evident, their sense of and soups. We heard that Theatre School overcame this for a visit. No doubt we are bereavement very real. stocks were much depleted, but by using the whole cast, acting as a chorus, to fill in sections of There is an exhibition “Charles Dickens: 200 Years”, at the Cadbury it was hoped they would soon fortunate to be able to see the story, thus preventing the Research Library, Muirshead Tower Atrium, University of Birmingham B15 be replenished by more many places of outstanding Such were one’s first pace from slowing down, and 2TT (tel: 0121 414 5839. E-mail [email protected]). This architectural interest and impressions of this place of donations, many from churches keeping the action moving includes rare book and manuscript material. beauty in our city, but it can be refuge. A warm welcome was who would be celebrating smoothly along. The action took refreshing to take a change given by the volunteers, and harvest festivals. place on a minimalist set, as the An Innovative piece of sculpture, “The Dog and Pot”, will be installed in Southwark during the course of this year. It will be situated on the corner those visiting could take a little relatively small area had to be from your majestic staircases, of Blackfriars Road and Union Street. A “Dog and Pot” sign existed there Victorian tiled floors and time to reflect, and read Lastly we saw the kitchen, many scenes, from the village school to the Gradgrinds' sitting between the end of the 18th century and 1931. Dickens passed it notices, savouring the where about ninety hot meals ornately moulded plasterwork room, to Bounderby's house regularly as he walked home from his work in the Blacking Factory to his ceilings. atmosphere as we enjoyed are prepared each evening. We and the workplace of the lodgings in Lant Street, Southwark. good, strong cups of tea and heard that the team of townspeople. The circus was th On walking into the Night some nice cake. In due course volunteers have got the kitchen very well portrayed, adding On June 18 there will be a one-day conference and symposium at the Shelter, the visitor enters a we assembled together to routine off to a fine art, the colour to the proceedings. The Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood, Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, E2 9PA: www.museumofchildhood.org.uk. 020 8983 5200. great bare hall, with plain walls begin a guided tour. result of long practice! We also production maintained the atmosphere of the northern painted cream. Running the full heard that they have a lot of town and its characters, giving length of the room are rows of We started our tour in the fun. Many of the volunteers A friend, who works there, sent this us the bleakness and tragedy of picture of the window display in the beds, of the traditional hospital dormitory, as already have worked there since the their lives, as Dickens intended. bed type, neatly covered with described, passing from there shelter first opened in 1986. Waterstone’s Bookshop in Harrogate. Morse remembered when he'd first read plain blue counterpanes. None into a clothing store. Here it We were told that if more could 'Hard Times' is not often 'Bleak House' (still to of your grand style here! The was explained that the donated be found to join the team, more dramatised, which is a pity. As his mind, the place is nevertheless a historic women’s clothes tended to beds could be provided, and this production showed, the greatest novel in the building, having once been the come in larger sizes, and that there is an increasing need only novel of Dickens not set in London, can still show Dickens' English language) St. Paul’s Sugar House. The styles more suited to older for them: the fact remains that concern with poor conditions he'd deliberately the work is done with street where it is situated was women, whereas the biggest and the plight of the working d e c e l e r a t e d h i s first known, in the nineteenth demand was for younger, more dedication and with a real love classes. Well done to the reading as the final century, as Victoria Street, a fashionable clothes: many of of the people who come in excellent cast! pages grew ever little row of just four houses. the homeless women who have under that roof on a cold thinner beneath his need of shelter make an effort winter’s night. We were moved The second part of the evening fingers. Never had The cream walls were, in fact, to dress with care and to hear of the gratitude and then cheered us all up. Some he wanted to hang not quite bare, for a display of imagination. We were shown innate courtesy of the vast of the actors from 'Hard Times' on to a story so presented forty five minutes of news-cuttings from the local also the laundry, this of course majority of them, a notion that much.' songs and recitations called would have been dear to the press told of Meg Grimes, the being an indispensable facility, 'What the Dickens'. There Chapter 14 - 'The founder of the Shelter, who where clothes can be washed heart of Dickens, who were songs and playlets based died suddenly in May 2011, and dried overnight. On from described several such people. on Dickens' work, with witty Wench is Dead' - aged sixty-five. The most there to a small room I feel proud that our Society twists, and slightly irreverent Colin Dexter moving aspect of this display resembling an outsized airing supports the Julian Trust. allusions, which delighted the was the tributes from some of cupboard, with shelves floor to audience, rounding off a very entertaining evening." EF the many whose lives she had ceiling storing towels and Lorna Hughes Wiltshire Women’s Dostoevsky and Dickens Saturday 24th March... Institute Bristol Central At 6.08 am my telephone rd Library On Friday 23 March a rang, and a voice - I still don’t group of ten of us (including know whose - said “Dickens’s Jim Cemlyn-Jones, son of As Sally mentioned in her lead article... Countryside. Radio 4. Now.” Pat and Morys) went over to There has been some Without more ado I put the Westbury, Wiltshire to do “On the morning of the 7th our dispute in the press and phone down and the radio on, some outreadings for the group read in the Central among scholars about the and listened to Open Country, W i l t s h i r e W o m e n ’ s Library...” truth of the claim in both an exploration of the Institutes, who were Claire Tomalin's and Michael importance of the Kent Slater's biographies of celebrating their bi- landscape to Charles Dickens. Dickens that Dickens and centenary. We did some Cooling and the thirteen child short readings in the Dostoevsky met in 1862, ... This proved to be another with articles entitled, for lozenges, The Hulks, the flat morning, followed by a talk highly successful event - with a land. The dangerous marshes by Tony Williams in which instance, 'When Dickens large and receptive audience Met Dostoevsky (Maybe)' . - “a sea of grass” and hugely he focused, unsurprisingly, giving both the performers, and changeable with the changing on Dickens’s attitudes to the audience, a lot of enjoyment. The confusion seems to weather conditions - women. At lunch time we spring from an article in 'The spectacularly hazardous. were out in the sun looking Dickensian' in 2002, which Cobham Hall Estate, a red- out over Westbury White cites a letter supposedly brick mansion dating back to Horse. And in the afternoon w r i t t e n i n 1 8 7 8 , b y pre-Elizabethan times: owned we did our version of “The Dostoevsky to by the Earls of Darnley - S.D.Yanovsky, in which he Tuggses of Ramsgate”. Dickens knew the sixth Earl Our efforts were claims to have met Dickens, Dostoevsky and that Dickens told him : after he bought Gads Hill. The appreciated as not only house is now, like Gads Hill, a were we applauded on girls’ school. One of the stage, but when we walked 'all the good simple people in his novels, Little Nell, even the holy simpletons like Barnaby Rudge (this must surely be very much speakers was born there, lived through the hall to sit at the Dostoevsky's description of Barnaby rather than Dickens's, one feels there until she was five (1955), back to listen to Tony’s - Michael Slater), are what he wanted to have been, and his villains later went back there as a second contribution, we were what he was (or rather what he found in himself) ...' schoolgirl, and still lives in the w e r e s p o n t a n e o u s l y village. The Leather Bottle Inn clapped a second time. It is claimed that this comes from a 'translation' from a letter of which at Cobham. And two Gads Hill The afternoon ended with a there is no Russian schoolgirls were interviewed. sing-song of songs from original. Sarah J. Young, One said that being there a lecturer in Russian at Lionel Bart’s “Oliver”. made them think of Dickens’s the UCL School of amazing personality and gave To make all this happen, Slavonic and East European Studies, them inspiration to believe that P a t C e m l y n - J o n e s they can accomplish what they negotiated with The asserts that the source of the letter is dubious. If want if they try hard enough. Women’s Institute and Eve Readers at The Wiltshire Women’s Institute this letter did exist, it is Fitt directed the readings. inconceivable that it would not have been included in the ‘Complete Staying at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury Works’ (1988). ‘One can I was lucky enough to join my sister Frankie, at the Dickens in only conclude that the Morse had managed to letter isn't genuine, which Shrewsbury weekend at the Lion Hotel. The event was doubly complete two complete days' is rather sad, because enjoyable because Terry and Margret Wright were also there. furlough, had re-read 'Bleak Owner Howard Astbury showed Frankie and me the rooms in the idea of the two men which Dickens stayed - they were in the very oldest part of the meeting is so wonderful,' House' ... hotel and hugely atmospheric. Any member wishing to stay she avers. there should mention their membership of The Bristol and chapter 60 - 'The Jewel that Clifton Dickens Society and should be offered an Keep your eyes and ears was Ours' - Colin Dexter advantageous booking rate. The whole ambience of the place o p e n f o r f u r t h e r - rooms, staff, service, were first class. Sadly the hotel is for developments on this sale - new owners will have a tough job before them if they subject in the press and are to attain the personability (my word!) that made our stay Frankie visiting Dickens’s suite with owner Howard Astbury such a pleasure."" " " " Don Hill on the radio/TV.

Dickens at Shrewsbury Bi-Centenary Clelbrations Cheltenham Literature Festival rd th The Lion Hotel - 3 -6 February 2012

Dickens at the Lion, a Charles Dickens’ bi-centenary celebration, was a perfect weekend, with staff - and The bi-centenary celebrations really started at the end of 2011. Cheltenham Literature Festival Shrewsbury Town Guides, who attended each day - dressing in Victorian costume: and fires were lit in the Appropriate, really, since Dickens was born so early in 1812. always offers a wealth of two fire places in the magnificent 18th century ballroom, for the first time in 50 years! interesting and challenging December 8th: for us, where the fun started with Malcolm Andrews’ On Friday evening, at 8 o’clock, the presenter exclaimed ‘Mr. Dickens is Coming!’ and extended his hand to speakers and guests. In 2011 a superb rendition of “A Christmas Carol”, read from a copy of Dickens’s Gerald Dickens who strode down the central aisle to begin the evening’s entertainment - a light –hearted and talk by Claire Tomalin about her own ‘reading version’, which was signed by Cedric Dickens. varied look at the life and character of Charles Dickens, including scenes from this work, diary extracts and biography on Dickens proved to be no exception. It was presented observations from those who knew and worked with him. It was splendid, and contained an astonishing th amount of information, describing Dickens’ passion for all things theatrical, his constant striving for perfection December 9 : Radio 3’s “The Verb” - Malcolm was in a discussion on in the form of an interview of Miss – he would rehearse a reading up to 300 times and when arriving at a venue, check each aspect of staging, Dickens in Performance and chose excerpts, read by Charles Dance. Tomalin by John Carey, Emeritus Merton Professor of English at lighting and acoustics by having someone move through every part of it to ensure he could adjust his voice th so that everyone would hear. The evening was conducted with Gerald’s own enthusiasm and his ability to December 11 : A celebratory “Songs of Praise” with a number of Oxford University. change in half a second from one character to another. In describing familiar faces and voices - including those of Thelma Groves, Tony how Dickens’s family life, his professional life and acute Williams, Gerald Dickens and Lucinda Dickens-Hawksley. He was particularly interested in Dickens's early life, asking about observations of people he met and streets he walked, had th th influenced his writing and creation of characters, Gerald moved December 12 -16 : “Book of the Week” choice was Claire Tomalin’s her account of his grandparents, through scenes with David Copperfield - The Micawbers, and Uriah new book: abridged, of course, to fit into the five fifteen minute slots, Elizabeth and William Dickens, Heep at a tremendous gallop, and with Scrooge and his nephew - A but a joy to listen to in the beautiful voice of Penelope Wilton. who worked as servants of the Christmas Carol was a central theme of the weekend. Crewe family, dividing their time December 14th: Lucinda Dickens-Hawksley spoke in Henleaze Library between Crewe Hall and Mayfair. Gerald said so often Dickens’s characters were based on someone about her great great great grandfather, while copies of her new book Elizabeth was much younger he knew, and in a question time, was asked whether, as Dickens’s on him were on sale from a Durdham Downs Bookshop stall. Lucinda William, and Dickens's father, characters seemed so often to be caricatures, could they ever have had been asked to write a non-academic but accessible biography, John, was born after William been real people? Gerald felt this confirmed they were, as a good and this she has done, in association with The Charles Dickens died. It has been implied that caricature embodied the essence of a person, and really that was Museum, London. It is a pictorial book, unsurprising since Lucinda’s William was not John's father, what Dickens was presenting to his readers. Gerald managed, in his speciality is history of art, and contains pockets with removable and as a consequence, felt he asides, to give glimpses of how he approached performing facsimile documents from Dickens’s personal archives. This means deserved a more elegant lifestyle Dickens’s work. After an interval where he mixed and talked with the lifting the book with care so that nothing drops out. It is, however, a than that of a servant. This may audience, he read from the first part of A Christmas Carol. fine tome, and good for use with children. be why he was rather profligate with money, and ended up in The Saturday gave us Sikes and Nancy. Gerald explained that most of December 19th -23rd: Radio 4 Xtra broadcast “The Writer’s Dickens”. Marshalsea debtors’ prison. He Dickens’s readings were safe, well known, and often comic Each night writers gave their personal responses to Dickens, and may have suffered delusions of passages, but he had, for years, wanted to introduce a reading on spoke about how they had been influenced by him. grandeur, being only too aware of Sikes and Nancy. He performed it first for his family, and friends, the lifestyle of the Crewes by who advised against making it a public reading, fearing audiences December 26th - 30th: Radio 4’s “Afternoon Drama” was Mike whom he was favoured and would be horrified and stay away from his readings. When an Walker’s five part dramatisation of “A Tale of Two Cities” - thoroughly recommended to George actress gave Dickens the answer he wanted ‘How could you not enjoyable. Canning, at the Navy Pay office. perform it? It must be done.” he did it, to great acclaim. He judged Was John Dickens's father a his success by how many fainting women were carried out. Clifton th th Charles Dickens once said of The Lion... December 26 - 30 : Radio 4 Xtra put on a member of the Crewe family, or won - with some 20 carried out of his reading here. Performance of "...we have the strangest little rooms, the ceilings of dramatisation of “A House to Let”; a one of the many rich visitors to this piece was exhausting: he might lie on a sofa for half an hour which I can touch with my hand.The windows bulge out over the street, as if they were little stern windows in a collaborative short story, written by Charles Crewe Hall? This interesting slant afterwards to recover and found a dozen oysters and champagne ship and a door opens out of the sitting room onto a little Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell and on Dickens's early life gave much were the best restoratives. After his own performance, Gerald open gallery with plants in it where one leans over a queer old rail and looks all down hill and slantwise at the Adelaide Proctor, and published in Household food for thought. looked as if he would welcome a dozen oysters and champagne crookedest old black and yellow houses..." Words. This was the Christmas Story of 1858. too. It was to have been written by Dickens and Dickens's mother, Elizabeth Collins, but Dickens decided to invite the two Barrow, also came under scrutiny. Shrewsbury was the location for filming A Christmas Carol in 1984, with George C. Scott as Scrooge. It was women to contribute chapters. Dickens and She, too, enjoyed a lavish an enormous event for the town, with 485 local people being involved. Most of the crew and cast stayed at Collins wrote the first and last chapters, while lifestyle. Her father Charles, had The Lion, and auditions for Tiny Tim and other youngsters were held there. Local historian David Trumper Elizabeth Gaskell contributed “The Manchester to flee the country, when it was gave an excellent illustrated talk on its making – how shop fronts and houses were transformed, local firms Marriage” chapter and Adelaide Proctor “Three discovered that he had been helped in construction, and costumes. Tons of artificial snow were used (at £200 ton, to be swept up and Evenings in the House”. (We shall be defrauding the Navy Pay Office. thrown away afterwards) and the mist machine must have been on for the whole month they were there. As discussing this story in our Holiday Reading group in May. He went to Ireland, and then to a token towards economy, the hundreds of pork pies displayed had no filling in them. Such attention to detail! The Isle of Man, where he ended Afterwards, town guides took parties to locations used in the film. For authenticity, a backdrop of St. Paul’s There were several TV versions of novels, including the new “Great his days. Despite her father's Cathedral was set behind Bob Cratchit's cottage. By the time we watched the film in the afternoon, London Expectations”. One day I sat through three TV versions of Dickens’s criminal activities, Elizabeth and Shrewsbury were so entwined in my mind, that when Bob Cratchit left Scrooge’s office on Christmas novels - “Nicholas Nickleby”, “David Copperfield”, and “A Tale of Two named her first son after him. Eve, I was concerned as to how he was going to get back to Shrewsbury and his cottage for Christmas Day. Cities”. One of Charles' cousins became Lord Mayor of Bristol. All can be The film crew left Scrooge’s grave stone in St. Chad’s Churchyard. But with no note of explanation. Perhaps The new year brought further radio dramatisations, some in hour-long found in Claire Tomalin's some tourists will look at it in bewilderment, wondering why Scrooge was buried in Shrewsbury and not instalments, others in 15 minute slots. Thanks to the BBC iPlayer, I biography, which promises to be London, and anyway, he wasn’t a real person….. was he?!! ! ! Margaret Wright managed to listen to them all. What a Dickensian feast we had! a fascinating read.! EF Wiltshire Women’s Dostoevsky and Dickens Saturday 24th March... Institute Bristol Central At 6.08 am my telephone rd Library On Friday 23 March a rang, and a voice - I still don’t group of ten of us (including know whose - said “Dickens’s Jim Cemlyn-Jones, son of As Sally mentioned in her lead article... Countryside. Radio 4. Now.” Pat and Morys) went over to There has been some Without more ado I put the Westbury, Wiltshire to do “On the morning of the 7th our dispute in the press and phone down and the radio on, some outreadings for the group read in the Central among scholars about the and listened to Open Country, W i l t s h i r e W o m e n ’ s Library...” truth of the claim in both an exploration of the Institutes, who were Claire Tomalin's and Michael importance of the Kent Slater's biographies of celebrating their bi- landscape to Charles Dickens. Dickens that Dickens and centenary. We did some Cooling and the thirteen child short readings in the Dostoevsky met in 1862, ... This proved to be another with articles entitled, for lozenges, The Hulks, the flat morning, followed by a talk highly successful event - with a land. The dangerous marshes by Tony Williams in which instance, 'When Dickens large and receptive audience Met Dostoevsky (Maybe)' . - “a sea of grass” and hugely he focused, unsurprisingly, giving both the performers, and changeable with the changing on Dickens’s attitudes to the audience, a lot of enjoyment. The confusion seems to weather conditions - women. At lunch time we spring from an article in 'The spectacularly hazardous. were out in the sun looking Dickensian' in 2002, which Cobham Hall Estate, a red- out over Westbury White cites a letter supposedly brick mansion dating back to Horse. And in the afternoon w r i t t e n i n 1 8 7 8 , b y pre-Elizabethan times: owned we did our version of “The Dostoevsky to by the Earls of Darnley - S.D.Yanovsky, in which he Tuggses of Ramsgate”. Dickens knew the sixth Earl Our efforts were claims to have met Dickens, Dostoevsky and that Dickens told him : after he bought Gads Hill. The appreciated as not only house is now, like Gads Hill, a were we applauded on girls’ school. One of the stage, but when we walked 'all the good simple people in his novels, Little Nell, even the holy simpletons like Barnaby Rudge (this must surely be very much speakers was born there, lived through the hall to sit at the Dostoevsky's description of Barnaby rather than Dickens's, one feels there until she was five (1955), back to listen to Tony’s - Michael Slater), are what he wanted to have been, and his villains later went back there as a second contribution, we were what he was (or rather what he found in himself) ...' schoolgirl, and still lives in the w e r e s p o n t a n e o u s l y village. The Leather Bottle Inn clapped a second time. It is claimed that this comes from a 'translation' from a letter of which at Cobham. And two Gads Hill The afternoon ended with a there is no Russian schoolgirls were interviewed. sing-song of songs from original. Sarah J. Young, One said that being there a lecturer in Russian at Lionel Bart’s “Oliver”. made them think of Dickens’s the UCL School of amazing personality and gave To make all this happen, Slavonic and East European Studies, them inspiration to believe that P a t C e m l y n - J o n e s they can accomplish what they negotiated with The asserts that the source of the letter is dubious. If want if they try hard enough. Women’s Institute and Eve Readers at The Wiltshire Women’s Institute this letter did exist, it is Fitt directed the readings. inconceivable that it would not have been included in the ‘Complete Staying at The Lion Hotel, Shrewsbury Works’ (1988). ‘One can I was lucky enough to join my sister Frankie, at the Dickens in only conclude that the Morse had managed to letter isn't genuine, which Shrewsbury weekend at the Lion Hotel. The event was doubly complete two complete days' is rather sad, because enjoyable because Terry and Margret Wright were also there. furlough, had re-read 'Bleak Owner Howard Astbury showed Frankie and me the rooms in the idea of the two men which Dickens stayed - they were in the very oldest part of the meeting is so wonderful,' House' ... hotel and hugely atmospheric. Any member wishing to stay she avers. there should mention their membership of The Bristol and chapter 60 - 'The Jewel that Clifton Dickens Society and should be offered an Keep your eyes and ears was Ours' - Colin Dexter advantageous booking rate. The whole ambience of the place o p e n f o r f u r t h e r - rooms, staff, service, were first class. Sadly the hotel is for developments on this sale - new owners will have a tough job before them if they subject in the press and are to attain the personability (my word!) that made our stay Frankie visiting Dickens’s suite with owner Howard Astbury such a pleasure."" " " " Don Hill on the radio/TV.

Under this Roof 'HARD TIMES' AND 'WHAT THE DICKENS' EXHIBITIONS - PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE The Tobacco Factory