7 Quick Takes Friday

• The Royal Mail will release 10 Dickensian stamps in June.
• A first edition of David Copperfield will be on display at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair this weekend. It's estimated to be worth about $12,500.
• Rochester Cathedral is hosting screenings of the 1946 Great Expectations film this weekend, along with the premiere of a short film called Magwitch, to raise money for the cathedral's upkeep.
• The Examiner has a listing of Dickens-related historical blue plaques around Britain.
• The (Portsmouth) News is hosting a writing contest for schoolchildren, in honor of Portsmouth's favorite son.
• Austenprose is hosting two Dickensian giveaways: They're offering a copy of The Charles Dickens Devotional, and a copy of Jean Shepherd's new novel The Solitary House, a murder mystery inspired by Bleak House. (We may be having another giveaway here before long, so stay tuned!)
• And finally, a few bicentennial-related articles of note -- from Language magazine, Radio Prague, and NPR. I like this from the latter: "I can think of only one living author capable of inspiring a collective global audience to stay up, put on costumes and talk excitedly about fictional characters: J.K. Rowling, a writer who is definitely not having a problem with readership. If, two centuries after his birth, Dickens can still inspire that kind of frenzy, the pro-reading lobby has no reason to do anything but celebrate."