Our Mutual Friend

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Introduction
Dickens sits at his writing desk on the left and gives a public reading on the right. The three famous characters are: Samuel Pickwick, jilted Miss Havisham (from Great Expectations) and Oliver Twist. The novel Our Mutual Friend shares themes with Little Dorrit which features in ceramic 3: arranged marriages, the corruption riches can bring and ultimate reward for virtue.

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Hazle Ceramics
Our Mutual Friend
Limited Painting of 50
on Upton-upon-Severn

 Dickens travelled with a small desk, a screen that acted as a back of stage sound-board for his voice and a gas lighting rig - hung from a bar 12 feet above the stage.

Dickens Xmas 2011 1/3
Windows & people by Chris McAllister

 Dickens at his desk in 1859 by W P Frith.

UK/Europe £94.50
Rest of World £82.17

“Hear Dickens and die...”
Dickens did stage tours in the UK and US from 1858 until shortly before he died in 1870. His team had a manager for bookings and travel, a valet-cum-dresser and a stage technician. The two hour “readings” were acted out largely from memory. Dickens threw himself into exhausting dramatic roles like the death of Nancy in Oliver Twist. The Scotsman quote above, typical of a glowing press, goes on, “you will never live to hear anything of its kind so good.”

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 Mr Pickwick is portly, bespeckled, charming... and wiser by the end of The Pickwick Papers. Here in Christmas at Dingley Dell he is kissed by every lady, young and old, on Christmas Eve!

 Dickens in Boston 1842.