Dickensblog

More Dickens stamps

The Isle of Man has released a new batch of Charles Dickens commemorative stamps -- five stamps featuring A Christmas Carol and one featuring the "Lost Portrait." Fans of actor, writer, and Dickensian Simon Callow will be pleased to learn that he has autographed the limited edition first-day covers. Go here to read more, and go here to order them!

A LEGO Carol

Brick Fanatics reports that LEGO.com is giving away this charming new Christmas Carol  set with purchases!

A tribute to Fanny Dickens

Musician Frances "Fanny" Dickens has had a temporary statue erected in her honor in Portsmouth, just steps away from the statue of her brother. It's one of several statues of sisters of famous men placed throughout the U.K., inspired by the new Netflix film Enola Holmes.

Dickens Museum reopening

Congratulations to our friends at the museum, which will be reopening on July 25! For those Brits among us who'd like to go, please note that advanced online booking is required. 

Good news for the Dickens Museum

The museum is now receiving some financial support from Britain's National Lottery Heritage Fund. Museum director Cindy Sughrue tells BBC News that the museum is "geared up to open as soon as possible over the summer."

Incidentally, the Dickens Society is running a fundraiser in which, when you donate to the charity of your choice, they'll give a matching donation to the Dickens Museum. Go here for details.

Virtual tours of the Dickens Museum with Lucinda Hawksley

Let Charles Dickens's great-great-great-granddaughter show you around his old home! Lucinda Hawksley will lead a virtual tour on Thursday, June 18, and another on Friday, June 19, to raise money for the museum. Go here to find out how to sign up for the first tour, and go here for details on the second one!

News roundup

On the eve of the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens's death, a few items of interest:

• The Jersey Post is releasing a new set of eight stamps in honor of the occasion: "Created by Mark and Julie Wilkinson, the stamps have been designed to look like classic leather book covers and feature key scenes and characters from some of Dickens’ best-loved works." Here's the direct link to order.
• Country Life put together a lovely tribute to some of Dickens's greatest characters. Meanwhile, The Conversation did a "data analysis" to gain some insight on Dickens's methods of characterization.
• The Dickens Theatre Company, unable to perform their new play Dickens' Dream because of the lockdown, have put a short teaser video online (click "Continue reading" below to see it). Their hope is to perform the play later this year.

Hope to run into some of you at the virtual #Dickens150 conference tomorrow!

Dickens in living color

The Dickens Museum has had eight photographs of the author colorized. Go here to see the first one and to learn more about the process and the results!

An evening with Dickens

The Dickens Museum and the University of Buckingham are teaming up to host an online "open evening" tomorrow from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. U.K. time, with a focus on the university's MA program in Dickens Studies. (For those of us on the East Cost of the United States, it's more of a late morning/early afternoon than an evening, of course!) In case you have some time to tune in, it looks like a very interesting event! You'll need to e-mail Dr. Pete Orford to register; go here for his contact information.

Visit the Dickens Museum online

The Charles Dickens Museum is now displaying images of many of its items online -- a project that began before the shutdown but turned out to be very "timely," according to curator Louisa Price. (A classic Dickensian coincidence, or Dickensidence, as we sometimes call them around here!) Go take a look, and while you're there, remember that the Museum could really use some donations right now, if you can spare anything!