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Annual Conference 2012

Event-Date: 

Thursday, 9 August, 2012

portsmouth spinnaker tower2012 - Portsmouth, England

International Dickens Fellowship Bicentenary Conference - 2012

Dickens’s Portsmouth Thursday 9th –Tuesday 14th August

DRAFT Outline Programme

Conference bed & breakfast rooms are en suite in Portsmouth University’s Rees Hall facing over Southsea Common to the Isle of Wight. It is ¾ miles from Portsmouth and Southsea Station and near Guildhall Square where lectures will be largely be held, tho’ evening meals will in Rees Hall. (The Olympics – arranged to celebrate Dickens’s bicentenary – will be on a Big Screen in the Square.) The City’s Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes (also born in Portsmouth) is a 5-minute walk from Rees Hall.

  • Thursday afternoon (9th) - registration (and a chance to see the Dickens and Doyle Special Collections in the City Library).
  • Thursday evening - Lord Mayor’s Reception, then a light lecture.
  • Friday morning (10th) – lectures, lunch followed by tour of Dickens-related sites – see “Dickens Trail” on the website.
  • Friday evening at the King’s Theatre to see Eileen Norris’s Barnaby Rudge ending its week’s run. 
  • Saturday morning (11th) - AGM and a Lecture. 
  • Saturday afternoon - parallel events of choice, with people invited to “do their own thing”: talks on special topics, research papers, exhibitions, performances, videos of Dickens films.
  • Saturday evening - Banquet in the Guildhall.
  • Sunday morning (12th) - service in St Mary’s Church, successor to the one Dickens was baptised in.
  • Sunday afternoon - choice of two tours (‘til one is full).
    • “Jane Austen Tour” – her home at Chawton, her birthplace at Steventon.
    • “Roman Tour” - Roman Fort longest Roman wall outside Italy, largest Roman Villa.
  • Sunday evening - in-house entertainment.
  • Monday morning (13th) - lectures, lunch and Unveiling of the Dickens Statue in Guildhall Square.
  • Monday afternoon - final Lectures. Monday evening – another Dickens-related play?

Tuesday will be normal departure day, though there will be an optional extra day. The cost of the full programme, Thursday reception through to Tuesday morning, will be £520, with a £60 non-refundable deposit. (Payment details - in GB Pounds) (If we manage to negotiate a reduction, this will be passed on at the conference.) Double rooms with good-view (25 only) are available on a first come basis, or for special needs.

[There will be an optional Maritime Heritage Day on the Tuesday – HMS Victory, HMS Mary Rose (and its Museum), HMS Warrior (1860) - and seeing-things-you have missed – cost of B&B, transport and tickets is £58 extra.] Other pre and post B&B nights in the Hall, @ £37 on request.

Contact: Geoffrey Christopher, 39 Northern Parade, Portsmouth, PO2 9PB, England. geoffreychristopher132@btinternet.com