Dickens World at Chatham Maritime, Kent have introduced a new attraction - the Grand Tour. Instead of the former free flow, visitors now must book for a guided tour conducted by professional actors which will offer an educational yet funny and interactive experience.
Another change - Ticket prices are reduced to £5.50 (adults and children). Tickets must be booked in advance, at least 48 hours before arrival, either online www.dickensworld.co.uk or phone 0844 858 6656
The University of Otago Library, New Zealand has made available an online version of its "Celebrating Charles Dickens" exhibition which ran through September to December 2012 in the De Beer Gallery.
Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability is holding its very first Heritage Open Day on Tuesday 19 February and unique items from the Hospital's archive will be on display. Charles Dickens was instrumental in setting up the charity, then called the Royal Hospital for Incurables, and the text of an 1857 speech by Dickens will be on display.
The Heritage Open Day takes place in the De Lancey Lowe Room at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, West Hill, Putney London SW15 3SW, from 11am-4pm.
Guided tours of the Victorian building will take place at 12.30pm and 3pm.
From 18th to 22nd December the Tower Theatre Company put on a musical romp through Dickens's last unfinished novel at the Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, London NW1 1TT
From 29th November to 6 January Simon Callow performs Christmas Carol at the Arts Theatre, Great Newport Street, London WC2 7HB. Simon's one-man show is based on Dickens's own performance adaption of his most popular Christmas story.
The film made by Viola Films which tells the back story of the convict Magwitch of Great Expectations is next being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, December 13 and January 2. Members of the Rochester & Chatham Branch of the Fellowship took part as extras and helped in many other ways.
A DVD of the film is available for £6.99 plus £2 p+p, blu ray for £9.99 plus £2 p+p. Cheques/po's payable to Viola Films from :
Violafilms, 50 Copenhagen Road, Gillingham, Kent ME7 4RU
The User Friendly Company are touring with two contrasting, Dickens inspired, musical plays. Estella's Legacy is a bitter sweet sequel to Great Expectations and Rachael's Christmas is a comic romp, starring the eccentric spinster of Pickwick Papers.
The Company's Christmas performances :
Thursday 6 December Rachael's Christmas at 6.45pm at the Geffrye Museum, Shoreditch, E2 8EA tel 020 7739 9893 Admission free
Waterloo East Theatre and the Charles Dickens Museum are the venues this Christmas for Dominic Gerrard's one-man show. Tim Carroll (who is currently directing Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry in the West End's Richard III and Twelfth Night) directs this production that incorporates puppetry and a Christmas soundscape.
December 3-15 at Waterloo East Theatre, Box Office 0207 9280060 Online booking www.waterlooeast.co.uk MEMBERS OF THE DICKENS FELLOWSHIP SHOULD ENTER CODE CCCD10 to book tickets at special concessionary rate of £10.
Charles Dickens: The Key to Character, an exhibition now showing through to January 27 2013 at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, Manhattan.
The exhibition features artworks by nearly thirty illustrators, including unpublished watercolors by Phiz, along with rare translations, original sheet music, the memoranda book that Dickens used to jot down possible names for characters and the 1867 pocket diary containing the code with which he communicated with Ellen Ternan.
The Dickens Fellowship is offered a special deal - top price ticket, free programme and drink in interval for £30 to see Simon Callow's one man show at The Playhouse Theatre in Northumberland Avenue, Whitehall. The show is on until 10 November.
