The debate about whether Charles Dickens wrote Pickwick Papers at The Lion in Shrewsbury rumbles on, but the bad news for the hotel and the town is that a second expert has discounted the theory.
In a recent blog I commented that the view and tradition at The Lion was that the author wrote part of Pickwick Papers when he stayed there. I said in the book: It is probable that Dickens stayed at The Lion more than twice, with some saying he wrote Pickwick Papers here.”
The experts agreed that Dickens visited Shrewsbury on a number of occasions, but they are adamant he didn’t write Pickwick Papers (pictured below) while he was in the town.
Dr David Parker, the former curator of the Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street, London, who also taught English literature at the University of Sheffield, the University of Malaya and the Open University, said: “Dickens started writing Pickwick Papers in 1836 when he was living in chambers at Furnival's Inn, Holborn, and finished it in 1837 when he was living at 48 Doughty Street. Much of the book was written at those two addresses.”
Now Michael Slater, Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, who has published a book entitled Charles Dickens giving a comprehensive account of the author’s life, in has joined the debate.
Michael, who is a past President of the International Dickens Fellowship, a former editor of its journal, The Dickensian, and an ex-Trustee of the Charles Dickens Museum, emailed to say: “I have to say that I have never come across the suggestion that Dickens wrote Pickwick at the Lion in Shrewsbury and cannot imagine what it is based on. He was at the time a very busy Parliamentary reporter for the London Morning Chronicle and was also busy getting married and setting up house. I think the visits to Shrewsbury must have come later.”
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