Lucinda’s Diary

Talk at the Charles Dickens Museum: Dickens’s Artistic Daughter Katey

Date: 29 October 2025
Time: 2pm
Location: Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street, London
Talks & Events
Dickens's Artist Daughter Katey

Join us at the Charles Dickens Museum for a special talk with celebrated author, biographer, and Dickens descendant Lucinda Hawksley, as she shines a light on the remarkable life and career of Katey Dickens who was born on 29th October 1839 at 48 Doughty Street, one of Charles Dickens’s most fascinating children. …

An event with Shaun Usher at Whitby Lit Fest

Date: 7 November 2025
Time: 7-8.30pm
Location: Eighteen, 91 Brunswick Street, Whitby YO21 1RB
Talks & Events
Shaun Usher

Shaun Usher is a literary phenomenon – the appointed custodian of letters, lists and now, diaries. Join him in conversation with historian and author, Lucinda Hawksley, featuring actor Miriam Margolyes giving very special diary readings. …

Great Expectations: Barbara Havelocke and Lucinda Hawksley at Whitby Lit Fest

Date: 8 November 2025
Time: 10-11.30am
Location: Whitby Museum, Pannett Park, Whitby YO21 1RE
Talks & Events
Great Expectations LH event

Dubbed ‘gloriously Gothic’ (Daily Mail), Estella’s Revenge reimagines the story of Charles Dickens’ Miss Havisham – the world’s most famous jilted bride. Long fascinated with Miss Havisham’s daughter, Estella, Barbara asks the question: What kind of emotionally-scarred adult would Estella become? …

What the Dickens? Author Dinner with Lucinda Hawksley at Whitby Lit Fest

Date: 8 November 2025
Time: 7 for 7.30pm
Location: White Horse & Griffin, 87 Church Street, Whitby, North Yorkshire, Y022 4BH
Talks & Events
What the Dickens? Author Dinner with Lucinda Hawksley

Join a descendant of Dickens over a delicious dinner at The White Horse and Griffin, the original coaching inn where Dickens stayed whilst visiting Whitby. …

An event with Miriam Margolyes at Whitby Lit Fest

Date: 8 November 2025
Time: 3pm
Location: Whitby Spa Pavilion Theatre, West Cliff, Whitby YO21 3EN
Talks & Events
Miriam Margolyes by Carole Barghi

A life-long Dickens aficionado, her recent Edinburgh Fringe show was Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits. She comes to Whitby at the end of a book tour for her latest memoir.
Join her for a candid interview with her long-time friend: Dickens’ great, great, great granddaughter, the author, art historian and broadcaster, Lucinda Hawksley, as she discusses her latest book: The Little Book of Miriam, an A-Z of wit and wisdom. …

‘Charles Dickens and his Legacy’ at Thomas Poole Library, Nether Stowey, Somerset

Date: 19 November 2025
Location: The Thomas Poole Library, Castle Street, Nether Stowey TA5 1LN
Talks & Events
Thomas Poole Library, Nether Stowey

An evening with writer and broadcaster Lucinda Hawksley, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Lucinda will explore the life and enduring influence of her celebrated ancestor, offering fresh insights into his world and the creative legacy he left behind. This promises to be a fascinating blend of literary heritage and contemporary perspective, bringing Dickens’s relevance to today’s audiences. …

Dickens & Christmas walking tour of London

Date: 1 December 2025
Time: 2.30-4.30pm
Location: Holborn Station, Kingsway, London WC2B 6AA
Talks & Events
Dickens and Christmas on seasonal wreath

Join Lucinda Hawksley, author, lecturer, broadcaster and great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens. Come on a fun walking tour of the London that Dickens wrote about in his Christmas novellas and short stories. We’ll start near one of Dickens’s homes and walk across the city, discovering the places that he was inspired by and the stories the city helped him to create. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the festive season. …

A Dickensian Christmas Talk

Date: 7 December 2025
Time: 2pm
Location: Museum of the Home, 136 Kingsland Road, London E2 8EA
Talks & Events
Dickens and Christmas book jacket

Who better to get you into the Christmas spirit than a direct descendant of Charles Dickens? Join Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, author of Dickens and Christmas and Victorian Christmas, to discover the origins behind our best-loved seasonal traditions – and to find out how A Christmas Carol so dramatically changed the ways in which the festive season is celebrated. …

Recent Events

Interviewing Miriam Margolyes at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton

Date: 19 October 2025
Time: 7pm
Location: Mayflower Theatre Commercial Road Southampton Hampshire SO15 1GE
Talks & Events
Miriam Margolyes From A to Z

Miriam Margolyes From A to Z

Whether sharing daring declarations, behind-the-scenes antics, or the indignities of ageing, Miriam’s insights will touch your heart, provoke your thoughts, and leave you in stitches. With her signature candour, unpredictability, and unvarnished truth, the irreplaceable Miriam Margolyes will deliver an experience as unique and extraordinary as she is. …

Lucinda in Conversation with Tim Spector, Author of Ferment: The Life Changing Power of Microbes

Date: 17 October 2025
Time: 7.45-8.45pm
Location: Wells Festival of Literature
Talks & Events
Tim Spector Ferment: The Life Changing Power of Microbes book cover

This riveting read provides a vital look at the inside story of our food: what we eat and how we should be eating it. Tim Spector introduces us to a way of eating that’s not only nutritious and cheap but also one of the longest and best-established systems in the world. Something that’s both simple and fool-proof but at the same time life-changing! Fermentation. …

Judge at Isle of Wight Book Awards 2025

Date: 7 October 2025
Location: Isle of Wight Literary Festival
Talks & Events
Isle of Wight Book Awards 2025

This year’s award ceremony marks the opening event of the Isle of Wight Literary Festival. Taking place at the Island Sailing Club in Cowes on Tuesday 7th October, the Presentation Lunch will include an opening speech by award founder Hunter Davies, with all three judges in attendance. …

Dickens And The Detectives

Date: 25 September 2025
Time: 7-9pm
Location: Medina Bookshop, 50 High Street, Cowes, Isle of Wight, PO31 7RR
Talks & Events
Dickens And The Detectives event poster

Join authors Angela Buckley and Lucinda Hawksley for a special event looking at Victorian detective stories, from real-life mysteries to those created by Charles Dickens (Lucinda’s great great great grandfather). The talk will explore the legendary author’s fascination with detectives …

A Dickens walking tour of London

Date: 24 September 2025
Time: 2-4pm
Location: From Bloomsbury to Marylebone
Talks & Events
Dickens walking tour LH

Walk around Charles Dickens’s London from his former home in Bloomsbury to where he was living when he wrote A Christmas Carol. Your guide, Lucinda Hawksley, is a great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens and the author of more than 20 books […]

Persuasion Salon with Lucinda Hawksley at Jane Austen’s House

Date: 21 September 2025
Time: 10-11am
Location: Jane Austen's House, Chawton, Hampshire, GU34 1SD
Talks & Events
Jane Austen's House Museum, Chawton
Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Join the inspiring author and historian Lucinda Hawksley for an intimate salon, discussing all things Persuasion! Over tea and cake, Lucinda will share some of her favourite scenes, characters and moments from the novel, and lead a discussion on everything from long engagements to hedgerow rambles, romantic letters and seaside ramparts. …

‘Loving longest’: In Conversation with Emily Howes at Jane Austen’s House

Date: 21 September 2025
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Jane Austen's House, Chawton, Hampshire, GU34 1SD
Talks & Events
Emily Howes Author Credit Katrina Campbell
Emily Howes - Photo credit: Katrina Campbell

Join acclaimed author Emily Howes for a fascinating conversation with Lucinda Hawksley about Persuasion and how it deals with women’s relationships, the intricacies of class and social mobility, and the expectations around caring and care. …

A Remarkable Woman – May Morris and her Circle: Talk at May Morris Study Day

Date: 15 September 2025
Time: 12.15-1.15pm
Location: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum East Cliff Promenade, Bournemouth, BH1 3AA
Talks & Events
May Morris

A child of the Arts & Crafts movement, May Morris was born at the Red House and grew up in the bohemian, complicated, and often heartbreaking atmosphere of her parents’ artistic milieu. She became a prolific artist, as well as a fervent suffragist, and cultivated her own fascinating circle of friends, yet May remained in the shadow of her famous father and – until recent years – was seldom given credit for her own work. …