01/06/2020
Cari dickensiani, cari amici:
DICKENS IN THE TIME OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
I hope that you are keeping safe and well during these trying times. 2020 – which promised so much to Dickensians – looks like delivering very little. All Lumen meetings and other Fellowship events – including the much anticipated annual conference in London – have fallen victim to the overarching need to maintain social distancing. The traditional wreath-laying service at Westminster Abbey on 9th June has also now been cancelled. As this is the sesquicentennial of Dickens’s death – this is particularly disappointing. The Dean will himself lay wreaths on behalf of the Fellowship and the Dickens family. We hope to share photographs with members in due course.
Instead, we are intending to join the Zoom-generation whilst all physical gatherings are forbidden. The President of the Fellowship, Ian Dickens, will deliver an oration via Zoom on Tuesday 9th June. To listen (and see) Ian, simply access via the link below. Capacity is limited to 100 on a ‘first come - first served’ basis. We hope to video the oration and make it available on our website. If you intend to watch ‘live’ could you please let us know via: [email protected] to enable us to assess the likely audience.
We also invite you to attend a virtual lecture by Professor Malcolm Andrews on Tuesday 30th June at 18.00. Malcolm will talk on: ‘Picturing Italy: Dickens and J.M.W. Turner’. This will not be accessed via the link below. Another link will be supplied in due course.
