Charles Dickens | chestnut book blog

Recently, my lovely Grandad gave me a gift of books. Here they are in their new home.

This set of Tennyson and Dickens, the Dickens in particular, bring back such strong memories of my childhood; seeing Grandad reading them, their wise and solemn presence in living room as I grew up and the smell of age and much love when I opened them. This is why they were so much more than a gift of leather, paper and ink; they were the gift of memories. So now these books will stand in my home, watching over me as I age and perhaps one day, I will pass them on myself to a daughter, son, niece or nephew. I will pass them on to someone who loves books as much as I do, as much as my Grandad does. In their covers will be preserved all of our memories of reading, of our family and of our homes. These books are my heirlooms and I will treasure them. Do you have books that are heirlooms?

Dickens’ Gad’s Hill

August 6, 2012 by chestnutbookblog Leave a comment

My life is being completely dominated by Olympic fever at the moment so it is difficult to write about anything else (especially after such a wonderful weekend of medal after medal for Team GB!). However, I am going to try! After a trip to the Olympic Park to see Hockey on Saturday (still sporting my patriotic nails and shoes!), we went to a rare opening of Gad’s Hill on Sunday. Gad’s Hill Place was Charles Dickens’ beloved house in the country and the place he died.

Gad’s Hill Place

It was a very handsome house in its day and it is now a slightly eccentric school building. A particular highlight was seeing Dickens’ desk and chair – like the famous engraving, it seemed as if it was just waiting for him to return.

Dickens’ desk

Earlier this year, I read Claire Tomalin’s excellent biography of Dickens as I knew relatively little about him. I’d really recommend it as a very readable introduction to Dickens’ life. A picture of a complicated character emerged – not always terribly likeable, but certainly interesting. That book was very useful background for this visit as it helped me appreciate my visit to Gad’s Hill properly I think, knowing how important it was to him. A plaque on the wall outside his study was particularly poignant I thought.

Gad’s Hill Place plaque

Dickens was proud of the house’s Shakespeare connections – Gad’s Hill is the site of Sir John Falstaff’s historic robbery and this leads me nicely onto my Shakespeare challenge for the remainder of the year… I mentioned in a previous post (here) that I was going to read one new (to me) Shakespeare play per month as there were significant gaps in my knowledge I feel I need to rectify. I am going to start with the history plays and so stay tuned for some more Falstaff in September!