From Dickens’s Study
Malcolm Andrews (who needs no introduction!) has been involved in producing a video called From Dickens’s Study. Here is a link to the film (1 hr approx.).
The film was shot in Dickens’s Study at his old home Gad’s Hill Place in Kent. From Dickens’s Study is designed to draw attention to the house, its history and the opportunities for visiting it, as well as offer some Dickensian entertainment. The house has been owned by Gad’s Hill School for over a century and is still used by the School until they can complete their separate premises and then release Gad’s Hill Place for full restoration, enabling it to develop as a dedicated Dickens heritage centre for the general public.
The film discusses Dickens’s sentimental feelings for his house, illustrates his working habits, and speculates on how he created his characters and stories. The last part of the film, still in the Study, is a Reading of scenes from Dombey and Son, drawn from Dickens’s public reading ‘The Story of Little Dombey’.
The film closes with a message from Marion Dickens, Dickens’s great-great-granddaughter. Marion is Chair of the charitable Trust, Charles Dickens Centre (Gad’s Hill), established to ‘restore Gad's Hill Place to reflect how it was at the time Charles Dickens owned and lived here’ and to open the house ‘as a museum for the general public, and [to] impart information to about the life of Charles Dickens’. Marion was herself a pupil at Gad’s Hill School and is now a governor of the School as well as Chair of the Gad’s Hill Trust.
If ever the opportunity arises for you, do take a guided tour of Dickens’s old home. The two guides, Steve Martin and Claire Hitchcock, appear in the film to talk about the house. For enquiries about booking their tours of Gad’s Hill Place, here are their contact details: Steve Martin stevemartin54@hotmail.
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