To celebrate this momentous day and most of all, the man himself, we are showcasing the brilliance of his work and highlighting the very definite impact reading Dickens has on a wide range of people; writers and readers alike.

As a very special birthday treat, enjoy listening to two readings from the recent London Penny Readings – marvellous oral offerings from AS Byatt and Louis de Bernierès that truly capture the comedy, tragedy and true heart of Dickens’ writing.

Reading the first chapter of Great Expectations, AS Byatt reveals how she first read the book when she was the same age as its hero Pip and how, being utterly entranced by the book, became inspired to follow in the footsteps of Dickens and become an author herself.
Click to listen to AS Byatt reading Chapter 1 of Great Expectations – with a personal introduction

In complete contrast to the wit and dark humour of Magwitch and Pip’s first meeting comes one of Dickens’ most emotionally wrenching passages – the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop. Here it is masterfully and poignantly read by Louis de Bernierès.
Click to listen to Louis de Bernierès reading from The Old Curiosity Shop

Pip meets Magwitch in Great Expectations

The reading of Dickens has also been taking place much closer to home in Get Into Reading groups in Wirral and Liverpool, where group members have been immensely enjoying the experience and embracing every dramatic twist, wonderfully descriptive sentence and deeply emotional juncture in his stories. Kate McDonnell takes us through how one Get Into Reading group in Wirral has been enjoying what is considered to be the most autobiographical of Dickens’ novels…

“My Friday morning group at The Lauries Community Centre in Birkenhead is reading David Copperfield at the moment – and we’re having a wonderful time of it! The last session was particularly good: we read Chapter 14 – My Aunt Makes Up Her Mind About Me, in which little runaway David finds out whether or not his formidable aunt will adopt him or send him back to his cruel stepfather, Mr Murdstone and his terrifying sister, Jane. The Murdstones arrive at the aunt’s house and there are some hilarious ‘King Kong meets Godzilla’ moments as the two women clash which made us laugh out loud. We cheered Aunt Betsy on with enormous relief when she finally opted to keep David and gave the odious brother and sister a piece of her mind! It was funny and entertaining, yet we also recognised that this was about deciding the fate of a small, frightened child and remembered children of today put up for adoption or waiting for foster parents, helpless to influence the result. How does Dickens do that?

Reading the book aloud together slowly over the weeks is like donning a pair of super-clear spectacles, enabling you to examine and wonder at every little detail – nothing is missed.

Here are some comments from the group on how they’re finding the experience of reading Dickens so far:

‘There’s lots of description in it, but it’s never boring.’ (A Dickens convert!)

‘I’m surprised at how much humour there is – I thought Dickens was all workhouses.’

‘It’s like Shameless – full of big characters’.

‘I didn’t think I would like it’

‘Dickens can make you laugh and make you cry in just a few pages’

‘He makes you feel like you’re in the room with them.’

‘It’s so colourful. You don’t read it in black and white, somehow.’

Emma Gibbons has also been reading some Dickens – the great Great Expectations – with a Get Into Reading group in Edge Hill Library. Reading the book has been quite a journey – the group read it with three different project workers over some months, but enthusiasm for it never waned. Indeed, it was enjoyed so much that the last three chapters were read twice over for the benefit of members who had missed previous sessions – the other members who had already read the ending were more than happy to hear it again, which shows just how much they appreciated the book.

Reading Dickens has proved to be a highly enjoyable experience for group members and project worker alike, as Emma herself testifies:

“Great Expectations is a wonderful book and reading it aloud has made me appreciate Dickens even more.”

The book has also  encouraged greater participation amongst some members of the group:

“One group member, B, did not read aloud when starting the group, but does now, and seems to really enjoy it. B has also been very keen on reading the footnotes to the text when an arcane term or an unfamiliar reference crops up. In particular, the reading of Magwitch’s death had a powerful impact on B, who had tears in his eyes.”

The impact of Dickens has even stretched beyond the group; one group member’s carer has said that she will read more of his work as a result of the group member’s enjoyment of Great Expectations. The wonder of Dickens’ words knows no bounds!

Dickens in 1850

This certainly shows how much influence Dickens has – and will continue to have for many more of his anniversaries to come – upon our reading experiences. We’ll leave with some wise words from the man himself…and wish him a very happy bicentenary indeed!

Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.

A staggering 92% of audience members who responded to our feedback forms said that they enjoyed the event ‘very much’ (with nobody ticking the ‘not very much’ or ‘not at all boxes’) – and given the array of talented readers and incredibly entertaining performers, it’s not hard to see why we got such an enthusiastic response.

Indeed, there was a lot on offer to enjoy and we’re thrilled to say that every aspect went down a storm – it’s especially heartening to find that 93% of audience respondents said they enjoyed the readings most; given that reading aloud is at the very heart of the Dickensian tradition the Penny Readings adheres to, it’s brilliant to know that it is as timeless as ever (we like to think that Dickens would be very proud indeed).

Plus we had lots of wonderful comments too:

So worth the trip, you were all brilliant. What a buzz and what connections!

A great afternoon’s real entertainment.

Interesting to see the other people who came and the enthusiasm.

A really enjoyable afternoon.

Absolutely fantastic. Here’s hoping there will be many more Penny Readings in the future…

(Also, you can read a first-hand audience perspective of the event on this lovely blog: Mrs Miniver’s Daughter)

We celebrated both Dickens’ bicentenary, and the expansion of our Get Into Reading groups across the capital, with a truly magical line-up of readers, comedy, and music which had the audiences in stitches one minute, and tearful the next. The British Library provided a suitably literary venue and Vintage gave everyone a free Dickens novel to take home with them. No wonder the public tickets sold out in a day!

Charles Dickens casts a critical eye over proceedings

Whilst a portrait of the great man himself looked down on us, his actual DNA appeared on stage in the form of Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, his great-great-great granddaughter, who apologised for reading A Tale of Two Cities from a well-loved paperback rather than a precious family heirloom. This made no difference to the quality of her performance, however; all of our readers left the audience in spellbound silence. 

The wonderful AS Byatt read the opening to Great Expectations, reminiscing about the effect it had on her as a child and delivering Magwitch’s threats with relish. It might be January, but our own Phil Davis’ portrayal of the loving Cratchitt family in A Christmas Carol  still kindled a warm and fuzzy feeling, whilst  Angela Macmillan movingly recreated Peggotty’s loyalty and devotion to the young David Copperfield, leaving one audience member ‘weeping like a burst water pipe’.

Ida Barr does her thing

TRO's Director Jane Davis and Tweedy the Clown

 Judging by the enthusiastic response from the audience and the reaction on Twitter, the event was an enormous success:

“I didn’t know I could be entertained like that”

“Clowns, cowbells, magicians and AS Byatt should be mixed more often!”

“Pure joy”

Dickens himself was a consummate entertainer and would surely have approved of the eclectic line-up, a perfect mix of comedy and pathos, just like the novels we were there to celebrate.

A big thank you to everyone who was involved and made it such a special event. If you came along, we’d love to hear your thoughts so please leave a comment below.

Don’t worry if you didn’t make it this time around – we will be back in Liverpool as usual in December and fingers crossed our London escapades will be the first of many!

All tickets to the hottest public reading event in London town on Sunday 22nd January 2012  have now sold out. Congratulations if you managed to snap up a ticket to what promises to be an amazing show and commisserations if you weren’t able to. We’re delighted that the event has proved so successful in such a short space of time. Dickens would be proud!

The British Library are taking overflow bookings in case of cancellations/no shows, but unfortunately there are no guarantees of a ticket. We’ll see you there!

The Reader Organisation is teaming up with Vintage Classics and the British Library to bring the famous Penny Readings to London for the first time. As we expand the reach of our Get Into Reading project across the city, bringing people together through shared reading, we thought it was about time that the event which has been unmissable in Liverpool for the last eight years should travel with us too.

Costing only a penny to attend, large public readings happened all across Victorian England, and Dickens himself toured Britain giving readings (although he charged slightly more for his – something like £20-30 in today’s money!). We’ve conflated the two to bring you the quality of Dickens’ readings at the bargain cost of only one penny – the Penny Readings!

The Penny Readings marks the beginning of his bicentennial year and will feature a fantastic ensemble of writers, musicians, magicians and readers, including authors AS Byatt and Louis de Bernières, and comedian Arthur Smith.

It will take place on Sunday 22^nd January from 2pm-4:30pm and each ticket holder will also receive a copy of a Dickens novel published by Vintage Classics, for a donation of just one penny.

Jane Davis MBE, Founder and Director of The Reader Organisation says: ‘Dickens’ vision was so generous and energetic and we’re really looking forward to kicking off his bicentenary celebrations with our first Penny Readings event in London. We’ve got an exciting line-up of readers and performers coming together to celebrate the vitality of his work in the beautiful surroundings of the British Library. It’s going to be a magical event.’

The Penny Readings event at the British Library will also feature Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, author, speaker and great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens; BAFTA award-winning actress Anna Maxwell Martin who starred in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House; ‘music hall legend’ Ida Barr, Tweedy the clown, and award winning magician Romany, with more guests to be announced. As well as an afternoon of readings and entertainment, the audience can also visit the recently opened exhibition ‘A Hankering after Ghosts: Charles Dickens and the Supernatural’ which runs until 4 March at the British Library and explains Dickens’ fascination with the supernatural, which influenced his ghost stories such as A Christmas Carol.

London Get Into Reading group members should contact their group faciliator, whilst the general public can reserve tickets here: http://www.bl.uk/whatson/events/event127220.html.

See you there!

Along with special guests including Charles Dance and Rachel Rose Reid, Ian McMillan celebrates the art of reading Dickens aloud in the run-up to his bicentenary. As fans of the Reader Organisation will be well aware, Dickens regularly performed his work to audiences of 2000 people (including here in our very own St George’s Hall). Malcolm Andrews, editor of the Dickensian Magazine, will be analysing why Dickens’ language works so well in performance, something ably demonstrated by David Morrissey and Phil Davis at our very own event on Sunday night.

Tune in live tonight, or listen again here if you miss it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017t37w.

The festive season has officially begun!

Last night saw The Reader Organisation once again take over the small concert room in St George’s Hall for our annual Dickensian extravaganza, the Penny Readings.

Judging by the reaction from the audience and on Twitter, the night was a resounding success.

“It was a perfect evening”

“The Penny Readings by @thereaderorg was fantastic. Completely surpassed my expectations. So entertaining, accessible and cultural!”

“Maybe only at Liverpool’s ‘Penny Readings‘ d’ya get David Morrissey being Macbeth on the same bill as a ukulele orchestra #splendidtime”

Frank Cottrell Boyce had the audience in stitches, magician Darren Campbell left us dazed and confused, we had some wonderful readings from The Reader Organisation’s very own Angela Macmillan, Casi Dylan and Beverley LaRoc, whilst Raven Sinclair-Edmonds treated us to some…interesting poetry of her own. The musical talents of trumpeter Grace Farrington and pianist Jasmine Scarisbrick were followed by the stunning voice of Lauren Spink, whilst the Wirral Ukulele Orchestra brought the house down with their flamboyant Hawaiian shirts and Santa hats.

Our special guest David Morrissey read a passage from Our Mutual Friend and performed one of Macbeth’s most famous speeches in homage to his recent starring role at the Everyman Theatre.

The evening was rounded off by the traditional rendition of a passage from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Professor Phil Davis. No doubt the great man himself would have approved of this early start to his bicentenary celebrations.

Our younger readers weren’t forgotten in all this excitement, as we held our second Ha’Penny Readings earlier in the day. Kids young and old enjoyed an afternoon of laughter and Christmas cheer led by MC extraordinaire Patrick Fisher and his friends from improv comedy group Sticky Floor. The Christmas party attended by Jedward, Horrid Henry and a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex was the stuff of nightmares!

“Wacky fun!”

Pianist Jasmine popped up again with a wonderful composition of her own, there were more readings by Angela Macmillan, whilst Scream Street author Tommy Donbavand roped in some audience members to help act out a story of werewolves, mummies, vampires and dragons. Two of our Young Person’s Project workers, Samantha Shipman and Anna Fleming, entertained the audience with their favourite festive poems; Anna was especially convincing as a bird from ‘Turkeys United’ demanding ‘No to Cuts!’. There was even a special appearance from Santa Claus, who took time out of his busy schedule to read a little something and deliver a gift to all those readers who fulfilled his ‘naughty or nice’ criteria.

If you were at either event, we’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below.

A big thank you to everyone who made the day such a special one – time to start planning next year!

We also have a few remaining tickets for the Ha’penny Readings, our event for young people aged 8-16. Tickets for this event are being allocated on a first-come, first-served  basis, so if you would like to attend please email pennyreadings@thereader.org.uk or call 07807 106 815 and supply your name, phone number and/or email address along with the number of tickets you require.

Now in its eighth year, The Reader Organisation’s all-singing, all-dancing festive end of year bash welcomes Liverpool-born actor David Morrissey as our star reader:

“I’m delighted to be asked to take part in this very special event in my home town, particularly as it marks the start of the celebrations of Dickens’ bicentenary in 2012. I admire how The Reader Organisation are keeping the spirit of Dickens alive through the Penny Readings in what must be the most accessible and fun literature event of the year.”

The Penny Readings follow in the tradition of Charles Dickens, who from the 1840s onwards, travelled across the North West giving readings for just one penny. This year’s Penny Readings will herald the beginning of Dickens’ bicentennial year with a fantastic ensemble of writers, musicians, magicians and readers, of which David Morrissey will be one.

The Ha’penny Readings, an event just for young people aged 8-16, makes a return for a second year too, held on the same day at 2.30pm With trumpets, Santa, comedy capers with Sticky Floor, selected readings for the festive season and special guest, Tommy Donbavand, author of comedy-horror series, Scream Street, it’s not to be missed.  (All children must be accompanied by an adult.)

Sticky Floor

As tickets are in such high demand for the Penny Readings (last year, the tickets had all gone in an hour), this year there will be a public raffle of 100 pairs of tickets (only one pair of tickets available for each person). There are also 100 pairs of tickets available for the Ha’penny Readings, which will be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

To enter, please call the Penny Readings Hotline on 07807 106815 or email pennyreadings@thereader.org.uk, leaving your name and contact details, and specify which event you would like tickets for (the Ha’penny Readings for young people at 2.30pm, or the Penny Readings at 6.30pm). The line is open from 9am Monday 14th November until 5pm Friday 18th November (any calls or emails before or after this time will not be entered into the draw). Roger Phillips will draw the first two winners of Penny Readings tickets live on air between 12.30-1pm on Radio Merseyside on Wednesday 23rd November. All winners will be notified by Friday 25th November.

If you’re lucky enough to get a ticket, entry to the Penny Readings will cost one pence – just as it did in the 1840s. Entry to the Ha’penny readings costs one half penny – tickets are sold in pairs so there’s no need to track down any obsolete coinage!