Our Dickens Champions here at the Immaculate Conception book group in Southampton have been out and about gallivanting to London and to Winchester in pursuit of all things Dickens. Of our trip to London, more later.
On Saturday May 26th four of us, Carole, Elizabeth, Rona and Trish made our way to Winchester Guildhall in the most beautiful sunshine to attend the talk entitled, ‘Claire Tomalin. In conversation with John Winter’. Excitedly clutching our copies of ‘Charles Dickens. A Life’ and ‘The Invisible Woman. The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens’, we found seats very near the front and were, like the rest of the packed auditorium, totally absorbed with Claire Tomalin’s thoughtful, reflective and often humorous comments, explanations and musings. John Miller’s questions were gently posed and enabled Claire Tomalin to reveal her extraordinary knowledge of not only Charles Dickens and his family, but of the social and political times. The hour long ‘conversation’ zipped by and we all undoubtedly felt that the novels we are reading as part of the Dickens Challenge are now, for us, more contextualised and embedded in the social and political times of England in the 19th century.
Getting our photo with Claire
After the talk, there was a book signing session. It’s amazing how four middle aged women can stride smartly from the back to the front of a crowd without causing an affray. With a sense of united purpose, books open in readiness, a few loud whispers, frantic gesturing and head waving, we huddled together and Carole explained to Claire Tomalin that we are Dickens Champions and that we would love to have our photo taken with her for the website. Considering that there was a huge queue, she was very gracious and one of the volunteers kindly took this photo. Needless to say we were absolutely thrilled to bits and it rounded off a memorable outing on a lovely sunny day.
Get involved
Watch out for our Dickens Champions’ blog posts as they read their way through Dickens during 2012.
Read Immaculate Conception Book Group’s blog posts on reading and finishing Dombey and Son.
Reading Dickens in your reading group or book club? Get in touch or post a comment to let us know how you’re getting on.
