Gerald Dickens, the great, great grandson of Charles Dickens, has revealed details about the weekend long festival from February 3-5, 2012, to mark the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth.
The announcement was made at the press launch of a new book, Four Centuries at The Lion Hotel, before a packed audience in the Ballroom.
Author John Butterworth is pictured below introducing the VIP guests. From the left are hotel owner Howard Astbury; John Butterworth; local journalist Chris Eldon Lee who will oversee the Dickens anniversary weekend; the Mayor of Shrewsbury, Cllr Tony Durnell, and Gerald Dickens.
Gerald will be doing two shows in The Lion Ballroom. He will perform Mr Dickens is Coming, which is a biographical show following his illustrious ancestor’s life story, and also Sikes and Nancy.
The second show, said Gerald, is so dramatic and horrifying that Charles Dickens used to judge its success by the number of people who fainted.
The weekend will also include a screening of the George C Scott version of A Christmas Carol which was filmed in Shrewsbury in 1984.
Gerald, who performs his show all over the world, stayed in the same Lion Hotel room as his great, great grandfather did more than 150 years ago.
“It was very moving to be in the same room where Charles was and look out on Wyle Cop over the same balcony and rail that he wrote about in a letter to one of is daughters,” said Gerald.
He told more than 65 people at the press launch: “It is always very exciting to read about everything Charles Dickens did and John’s book is so fascinating. It’s not just a history of the hotel, but of the whole town.”
The Mayor of Shrewsbury, Cllr Tony Durnell, was also at the launch and he said he thought he knew about the history of Shrewsbury but he found out far more by reading “this interesting book.”
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