Prince Charles laid a reath on the authors grave, Charles Dickens as part of the service at Westminster Abbey. Ralph Fiennes, Claire Tomalin and Mark Dickens attended the service. The royal family also visited Charles dickens museum in London which opened in 1925 in the house which the author lived in during the time period of 1837-1839. The royal family also got a private reading from a actress who played a part in one of Dickens great film. Her name was Gillian Anderson, she said that she was surprised on how the family reacted with fun and jokes. There was a service in Portsmouth when dickens was born. Here in Portsmouth wreaths were laid at his birthplace and Dickens great-great grandson, Ian Dickens, laid a wreath too. Readings were read by Simon Callow(who read parts of David Copperfield) and Sheila Hancock ( who read from Oliver Twist) who were fellow workers and worked beside Dickens for quite a lot of his life. Meanwhile there was a 24 readathon taking place in countries like Albania and Zimbabwe.
Callowrefired to dickens desire to where he wanted to be buried. He said this: "that when he was younger that he had made a really strong decision to come and live in the place where he was born rather than Westminster Cathedral where he never wanted to be." In the end Dickens was buried at Rochchester Cathedral where he was in peace with no publicity.
Judith Flanders also attended the service. She read from Bleack House and said that the whole thing was enormously moving. She then said that Dickens would have hated having all the fuss made about him as she thought that he was not that kind of person who liked to have a fuss made out of him. Someone else then added dickens humanity and compassion made a huge impact on Victorian England throughout his writing and novels. These novels still remain very popular with all age groups.
The BFI Southbank in London is holding a international readathon that will now be happening in Australia. The readings will be Dombey and son and will end with the Mastery of Edwin Drood. Susie Nicklin who organizes this event said 2 we are responding to the huge global demand from the audiences in 66 countries with whom Dickens has struck a chord as this themes and characters seem as fresh to them today as they did to the readers in the Victorian era.
Other events include the bi-centenary dinner in the Mansion House in London that happened on Tuesday night. Sir Patrick Steward read and Dickens newspapers were launched along with a ipad app for people to see the content of Dickens work.
All members of the Cabinet were given copies of Dickens work by the Culture Secretary Jeremy hunt to mark this amazing day. David Cameron was given Hard Times and Great Expectations.
At the weekend Claire Tomalin said "children did not have the attention span necessary to appreciate the authors work because they were being reared on dreadful television programmes."
I think Jesus would of enjoyed the day that was celebrated today. He would have been proud to have Dickens as part of the English Population as Dickens did so well with the thing he enjoyed most- writing. Jesus would also have been sad for Dickens family and friends who were remembering Dickens for his work but also for who he was as a person. Everyone behind their fame has feelings and a personality. This shows the feelings behind everyone when they have family and friends. Jesus would have wanted everyone to be different and show what they're like personally!
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