Dickens enthusiasts celebrate bicentenary (From York Press)
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Dickens enthusiasts celebrate bicentenary
8:56am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in News
Cutting the cake to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens are, from left, Brian Oxberry, Margaret Dent and Richard “Badger” Billinge, of York Dickens Fellowship
DICKENS enthusiasts have gathered at a York pub to celebrate the author’s bicentenary.
About 25 members of the York branch of the Dickens Fellowship and their guests attended a luncheon at the Black Swan, in Peasholme Green, yesterday to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens’ birth.
A cake was decorated in the form of a Dickens’ novel by Bernardette Oxberry, the oldest daughter of the branch’s readings co-ordinator Brian Oxberry.
In London, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall led worldwide celebrations of the anniversary, with the Prince Charles laying a wreath at the author’s grave at Poets’ Corner as part of a service at Westminster Abbey.
A service also took place in Portsmouth where Dickens was born, with readings by actor and biographer Simon Callow and actress Sheila Hancock.
Mr Callow explained that he had become as inspired by Dickens’ role as a showman as by his stories.
He said: “It’s inescapable really, he was a performer to the tips of his fingers.”
