This summer at the 2013 Dickens Universe conference, the Friends of the Dickens Project are proud to welcome two direct descendants of Charles Dickens. Gerald Dickens will perform on Tuesday evening in an original show, while Lucinda Hawksley will be speaking about her new book, Katey and the relationship between the Dickens and Collins families.
While these activities are part of the Dickens Universe and free to enrolled Universe participants, members of the general public may attend either or both by contacting the Project office (831 459-2103) and donating a minimum of $50 to the Friends of the Dickens Project. Those seats are limited. If you haven't yet registered for the Dickens Universe week, there are still plenty of spaces available.
Gerald Dickens is a great great grandson of the author Charles Dickens. He has worked as an actor, director and producer for many years.
In 1993 he created his first one-man show, a theatrical performance of A Christmas Carol inspired by Charles’ own energetic readings of the 1860s.
A fascination with the life and works of his subject led him to write and direct further one-man shows including Mr Dickens is Coming!, Nicholas Nickleby and Sketches by Boz. He regularly performs in major theatres and arts centres as well as at hotels and stately homes.
Lucinda Dickens Hawksley (great great great granddaughter) is an author, art historian and public speaker, with a special interest in literature and art from the 19th and early 20th centuries and in the history of London. She's also an award-winning travel writer with a love of the environment: cetaceans are one of her passions and she is a volunteer speaker for the Whales & Dolphins Conservation Society.
As a great great great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, Lucinda has grown up with an interest in her family history. For the last decade she has been a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. She is also the author of the recent bicentenary edition of Charles Dickens, a biographical book containing facsimiles of letters, manuscripts, and even Dickens's will.
Her latest book, Katey: The Life and Loves of Dickens's Artist Daughter examines the fascinating life of Dickens's second daughter, a reputable artist once married to Charles Collins, younger brother of Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone).
