Past Events
A talk with Charles Dickens’ great-great-great granddaughter as well as a celebrated author about Dickens and Victorians.
Talk set against readings of A Christmas Carol with Lisa Bostnar and Ken Sheldon.
Brush off your bowlers and prepare your petticoats as Galveston Historical Foundation presents the 50th annual Dickens on The Strand. Held the first weekend in December, the annual festival is a holiday tradition with great family programming, live entertainment, special events and more. Dickens on The Strand, based on 19th-century Victorian London, features parades, non-stop entertainment on four stages, new additions like Tiny Tim’s Play Land, Shopkeeper Skills Village, and roaming characters throughout the festival. Costumed vendors peddle their wares from street stalls and rolling carts laden with holiday food and drink, Victorian-inspired crafts, clothing, jewellery, holiday decorations, and gift items.
Join SoA member and author of Dickens and Christmas on a walking tour around Dickens’s London. Lucinda Hawksley will walk you along Dickensian streets, including some of the sites that inspired his seasonal writing. The tour will end at the Charles Dickens Museum in Bloomsbury, attendees will then have the option to have a self-guided tour around his former home, or grab a refreshment at the museum’s cafe.
Lucinda is an SoA member, a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum and a great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens.
Spaces are limited, so please book your tickets in advance
Ellen Terry, a celebrated English actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, captivated audiences with her exceptional talent and stage presence. Renowned for her compelling performances in both Shakespearean classics and contemporary plays, Terry’s emotive and nuanced acting style left an indelible mark on the theatre world. Her collaboration with Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in London further reinforced her legacy, as the two created memorable productions that enthralled Victorian audiences. Terry’s captivating beauty and versatility on stage, combined with her strong personality and commitment to her craft, established her as a prominent figure in the theatrical landscape of her time.
An online talk on Dickens and Travel.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the only Italian Branch of the Dickens Fellowship is pleased to announce that it will be holding a two day celebration over the weekend 11 and 12th November 2023. This will consist of a series of lectures on the Saturday on the theme of International Dickens: Dickens Abroad.
Event presented by Artistic Fields.
Talking about Dickens and Travel with fellow author Victoria Panton-Bacon. Tickets are on sale now.
Lizzie Siddal, Kate Perugini (née Dickens) and Princess Louise were all talented artists and celebrities of the 19th-century artistic world. Their lives and careers reveal a very fascinatingly different story from our usual preconceptions about Victorian women. Lucinda Hawksley has written biographies of all of these remarkable women, and in this talk she will share their stories, revealing their secrets, their ambitions, and the scandals that surrounded them.
Come along on 28 September to discover the lives of unconventional people living in a very conventional time.
Seated talk and book signing.
A unique opportunity to hear author Lucinda Hawksley in conversation about her great great great grandfather Charles Dickens.
From childhood, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales from other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. Lucinda Hawksley talks about her latest book, Dickens and Travel, which looks at the journeys made by the author, and how they influenced his writing and enriched his life.
Although Dickens is usually perceived as a London author, in the 1840s he whisked his family away to live in Italy for a year, and spent several months in Switzerland. Some years later he took up residence in Paris and Boulogne (where he lived in secret with his lover). In addition to travelling widely in Europe (including, of course, Liverpool), he also toured America twice, performed onstage in Canada and, before his untimely death, was planning a tour of Australia.
There will be the opportunity to buy Lucinda’s book and have it signed during the event.
All proceeds from this event will go to Smithdown in Bloom.
Starting on the journey of writing non-fiction – whether based on your own experiences or those of another – can be daunting, but thrilling. Experienced writers and tutors Lucinda Hawksley and Julie Summers will help you to navigate the joys and pitfalls of life-writing; to move beyond simply telling the story as it happened. You will learn how to bring characters to the fore, and how to breathe life into historical events. Through a series of writing exercises designed to stretch you, the tutors will help unlock your authorial voice and share ways to reveal personal stories without leaving you feeling exposed. This course is aimed at writers of all levels who want to explore new techniques for creating exciting narratives that bring human stories to life.
Lumb Bank Photo © The Arvon Foundation