Book shop to host Charles Dickens festival

A festival celebrating Charles Dickens will be held in Worcestershire, nearly 170 years since the novelist visited the county during a national tour.

The Great Recitations Dickens Festival will take place at Script Haven, on High Street, Worcester, during the weekend of 7 and 8 February.

The bookshop has a blue plaque installed in recognition of the time Dickens visited the city to read A Christmas Carol in 1858.

A series of events will take place at Script Haven and in Cathedral Square, including a visit by historian, author and Dickens' three-time great-granddaughter Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.

Leena Batchelor, owner of Script Haven, said: "I'm incredibly excited that Great Recitations is back again, especially as we have a direct Dickens descendant joining us.

"It has been fascinating learning about Script Haven's and Worcester's connection to Dickens, something that we get asked about regularly by our customers and which I'm always excited to talk about."

Dickens read from A Christmas Carol at the former Public Hall in Worcester, and while in the city visited the Swan Hotel, the site of the book store in the present day.

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