Since its publication on 19 December 1843, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens has never been out of print. It was an astonishing and instant success, selling out its first 6,000 copy print run in just five days. With the novella’s success, a new industry was created, and by December 1844, a plethora of seasonal titles had … Read more
Struck by her good looks and her pale copper hair, the Pre-Raphaelite painters made Lizzie Siddal one of the best known faces of the Victorian era. An artist’s model from the London slums, she also made her mark as a poet and artist. This is her extraordinary story – written in five parts by Lucinda … Read more
On 24 August Lucinda will be sworn in as President of the International Dickens Fellowship. She will be taking over from the brilliant Professor Cathy Waters. …
We recently had the delight of hosting a rousing talk with award-winning authors Lucinda Hawskley and Humphrey Hawksley at Riverstone Kensington. This was the latest event in our ‘In Conversation With’ series, where residents and guests engage with figures in an intimate conversation. The speakers Humphrey Hawksley is an author and journalist who was a … Read more
This week’s bicentenary of the birth of Wilkie Collins – author of The Moonstone (1868) and The Woman in White, who regularly collaborated on plays and stories with his friend Charles Dickens – has rightly brought the Victorian author back to prominence. But less is known about his younger brother Charles (“Charlie”) Allston Collins, an artist and writer whose … Read more
What’s the first location that springs to mind when thinking of setting up a Charles Dickens festival? It’s unlikely to be a Texan island. But in 1973, Galveston Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, began a small festival dedicated to the English author. During the 19th century, Galveston, Texas, was the US’s second busiest immigration … Read more
On 18 January 2007 a young American woman died in a car crash in Guatemala City; her name was Hanley Denning and she was only 36 years old. The news of her death barely made it to the outside world, but in Guatemala, thousands of people went into mourning. To Guatemalans, Hanley Denning was known … Read more
My grandmother, who lived in London, took my seaside-dwelling sisters and me to the Natural History Museum when I was about five. I have a vivid memory of standing for a very long time, looking up at the vastness that was the blue whale. This magnificent model, with its expressive eyes, was suspended from the … Read more
In the Ashmolean, look out for a reclining woman reading a book. She may be wearing a black dress, but she is surrounded by vivid bursts of colour: a rich green sofa, a yellow-jacketed book, not to mention her warmly coloured lips and copper-coloured hair. It’s a portrait of the Parisian model Madeleine Boisguillaume, painted … Read more