The Broadstairs Dickens Fellowship meets monthly on Wednesdays at 7.00p.m with a varied programme of speakers, readings from Dickens and social events. Guests are always welcome at meetings – a small fee is payable at the door.

Meetings are usually held in the Pavilion Conservatory, but there will also be events at Bleak House during 2025.

March 5th – speaker Prof Hugh Cunningham : Dickens & Philanthropy.

Dickens is well known as an advocate for social reform, but he is often scornful of “do-gooders” in his novels. Professor Cunningham is an Emeritus Professor of Social History at the University of Kent and author of several books on changing attitudes to children and childhood. 

April  2nd -  speaker Prof Cathy Waters : Armchair Travel in Household Words 

Professor Waters is Emeritus Professor of Victorian Literature and Print Culture at the University of Kent. She has published books on Dickens and the family, and on the journal he edited for many years – Household Words. This talk was originally given at   the 2024  Dickens Fellowship International Annual Conference

May 7th -  speaker Paul Lewis. Paul Lewis is the Secretary of the Wilkie Collins Society and editor of Collins’ letters. Wilkie Collins was a close friend and collaborator of Dickens for many years, and frequently visited Broadstairs.

 June 4th - Social evening- Broadstairs Fellowship social evenings may involve quizzes, short talks by local members or Dickens focused discussions

 July – Social evening to be confirmed, plus a possible outing to Rochester, subject to member interest.

August - cream tea & Dickens Declaimers performance at the Italianate Greenhouse on a Sunday afternoon date tbc. Open to members and their guests only.

September 10th - Please note date change from first Wednesday. Meeting to be held at Bleak House with Dickens Declaimers presentation on “Dickens’ Women”. 

October 1st- speaker Dr Peter Orford speaking on Edwin Drood .

Dr Orford is a Lecturer in English at the University of Buckingham and the Course Director of the MA course in Dickens Studies run in conjunction with the Charles Dickens Museum. He writes extensively on the work of Dickens and is particularly interested in Edwin Drood, Dickens’ last, unfinished, novel

November 12th - Please note date change to avoid Fireworks Night. AGM plus speaker tbc

December 3rd - Social event at Bleak House. –  A Dickens Christmas – Victorian food and drink