Lucinda Hawksley

In 1842, Charles and Catherine Dickens set sail from Liverpool for a 6-month tour of the USA and Canada. In this online event, I’ll be talking about their journey and how it inspired Dickens’s writing. This is the first in a series of talks I’ll be giving over the next year, inspired by the book I’ve just finished writing, Dickens and Travel (which will be published later this year, pandemic permitting!). https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/charles-dickenss-first-trip-to-north-america-tickets-142223553477

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas, which is currently hosting an exhibition entitled Victorian Radicals, including many items from the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in England.

I was invited to give development training to the musem’s docents about the Aesthetic movement and to give a public lecture on Charles Dickens and the Pre-Raphaelites, which was a packed house!

Thank you San Antonio, for making me so welcome. What a beautiful place. If you’re in Texas, make sure you visit the exhibition. You won’t be disappointed.

On 26 January, I’ll be talking about my book ‘Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the Victorian Home’ at Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand. Tickets and more info here: https://www.friendsoftepapa.org.nz/event/beyond-te-papa-bitten-by-witch-fever/

At 7pm on 18 April, I’ll be talking about Bitten By Witch Fever at Wendover Library. Come & discover the history of #arsenic (wallpaper, murder, food colouring…). Tickets are on sale now: http://www.wendovernews.co.uk/event/lucinda-hawksley-2018-apr-18

I have fully updated my 2006 biography of Kate Perugini (née Dickens). Katey, as I came to know her, was a superb artist and a central figure in the late 19th-century art world; she was also my great great great aunt. This updated version was made possible by the many kind people who contacted me after reading my first edition of the book to share news about previously ‘lost’ paintings. Researching Katey again has been so fascinating. Her new biography is being published by Pen and Sword on 30 April 2018. If you order it in advance (link below), you will get a discount of £3:

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Dickens-Artistic-Daughter-Katey-Paperback/p/14728

This October, I’ll be speaking about Bitten by Witch Fever at the Warwick Literary Festival. Come along and found out how Victorians were being poisoned by their own homes.