Dickensblog

A Dickens of a berry

Charles Dickens has just had a strawberry named after him! Click here to find out why.

Congratulations, Richard Armitage!

The actor's reading of David Copperfield has been nominated for an Audie Award. I recently started listening to this audiobook, and (aside from wondering why he decided to make Aunt Betsey Scottish) I'm enjoying it very much.

Limerick for Dickens

To Limerick Dickens once went.
Now a plaque celebrates the event.
Though he thought that the town
Was quite odd, they're not down;
They still love that Victorian gent.

A Dickens postmark

From now until March 7, all mail sent to Portsmouth will get a postmark reading "Celebrating the birth of Charles Dickens 1812-1870." I was going to make a pun about "a man of letters," but alas, the Portsmouth News beat me to it! Thanks to The Buzfuz for the tip.

One more Dickens birthday photo

I just had to add this one from the Daily Mail, captioned "Three of Charles Dickens['s] great great great grandchildren, siblings Tom Dickens 15, Lydia Dickens 14 and Oliver Dickens 9 take a selfie with their ancestor's new statue in Portsmouth today."

 (Image copyright Matt Scott-Joynt/M and Y News Agency Ltd)

Happy 202nd birthday, Charles Dickens!

There was much celebrating in Portsmouth today, as the city's favorite son finally had his new statue, by Martin Jennings, unveiled on his birthday! Members of the Dickens family and the Dickens Fellowship were on hand for the festivities, along with actors Edward Fox and Joanna David. BBC News has the story and some great photos, including a lovely one of the writer's great-great-great-grandon, Oliver (yes, Oliver!) sitting on his lap. 

More details and more photos are at the Express & Star, The (Portsmouth) News, and the Guardian.

I hope the writer we love would have been pleased and proud of this very special gift. Happy birthday, Mr. Dickens! 

Painting the town blue

Yet another blue plaque for Dickens was unveiled this week. I'm not sure how many that makes now! Anyone know?

We're number four!

Dickens got a spot on Entertainment Weekly's new list of the 10 greatest novels of all time, with Great Expectations coming in fourth. EW calls it "the greatest morality tale ever written — and the greatest soap opera, too."

7 Quick Takes Friday

• Rochester's famous Dickens Festival is about to get under way!
• Actress Jessie Cave talks a little about playing Biddy in the bigscreen Great Expectations, in this brief interview.
• There's a new plaque marking the place where Dickens spent his last night in Portsmouth.
• Toledo, Ohio, has a new coffee shop named after Bleak House.
• In an article for the New Zealand Herald News, Colin Hogg recounts his journey "in Dickens's footsteps."
• There's an article here about how people who work with LinkedIn passwords are using A Tale of Two Cities for . . . something or other. Not being a techie, I can't understand a word of it, but maybe some of you can.
• A letter written by Dickens's first love, Maria Beadnell, to her daughter Ella, was recently sold on eBay to a former English teacher.

Congratulations to 'Great Expectations'!

The miniseries won three Bafta Craft awards: production design, visual effects, and photography and lighting.