General interest

Dickens Day 2025
Saturday 11 October 2025, Senate House London

Contact: Dr. Peter Orford This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

I am not mechanically acquainted with the art of painting, and have no other means of judging of a picture than as I see it resembling and refining upon nature, and presenting graceful combinations of forms and colours. Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy

This year’s Dickens Day will be on the topic of ‘Dickens and Art’. Dickens’s frank admission in Pictures from Italy that he was not mechanically acquainted with art betrays an insecurity about his own formative education, yet throughout his writings we see a wide-reaching interrogation of art, be that paintings, sculpture or architecture. From the arch insights of Miss La Creevy in Nicholas Nickleby (‘there are only two styles of portrait painting; the serious and the smirk’) to the solemn and ominous gallery of Chesney Wold in Bleak House, Dickens draws upon art as an opportunity for character insight and social commentary.

Beyond the novels, Dickens was great friends with artist Daniel Maclise, father-in-law to the artist Charles Allston Collins, and an infamous critic of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Just as significantly, the artistic representations of Dickens’s own works are a fundamental factor in his enduring popularity, from the original illustrations by Phiz, George Cruikshank, Marcus Stone and others, to the rich and varied afterlife of Dickens’s works and characters in everything from cigarette cards to oil paintings, our relationship with Dickens has long been informed by the visualisation of his writing by others.

About 35 members attended the event, no doubt encouraged by the glorious spring weather. It proved a very enjoyable occasion, with introductions and readings from their books by Lucinda Dickens Hawkesley , great great great grand daughter of Charles Dickens, Kathy George (The Scent of Oranges) and Lynn Shepherd (The Man in Black). This was followed by a lively discussion among the authors, chaired by Lucinda and then questions and comments from the audience. There was a raffle with signed copies of the books for prizes. 

As one of the aims of the event was to raise funds for the restoration of the Little Dorrit vestry, we had readings from Little Dorrit by Helen Howe. A short address  by the rector followed and the afternoon concluded with a tour of the church.