CHARLES DICKENS’ GREAT-GREAT-GREAT GRANDAUGHTER, LUCINDA DICKENS HAWKSLEY,
TO BE GUEST OF HONOR AT DICKENS ON THE STRAND FESTIVAL
Lucinda Dickens Hawksley is a biographer, art historian, voice-over artist, public speaker and award-winning travel writer. She is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including a retelling of A Tale of Two Cities for children. She will be Galveston Historical Foundation’s guest of honor at its 37th annual Dickens on The Strand Victorian Holiday Festival.
Galveston’s Dickens on The Strand, set this year for December 4 and 5, is an annual holiday street festival filled with costumes, music, food and wares based on 19th-century Victorian London. The Dickens festival is always held the first weekend in December in a 10-square-block area of Galveston’s historic downtown. For the 37th annual event, festival gates will be open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Guests who wear Victorian costumes receive half-price admission at the gate. Tickets to the festival and all related special events are available online at www.galvestonhistory.org. Festival Tickets are also available at all area Kroger food stores
Hawksley is the great-great-great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, descended from his son Sir Henry Fielding Dickens (the eighth child in the family). She is an expert on Dickens family life and a patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. To learn more about Hawksley and her literary works, visit her website at www.lucindahawksley.com.
Hawksley will offer three lectures and seven book signings while she is in Galveston.
She will be the guest of honor at the Dickens Champagne Reception, Thursday, December 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the new Menard Hall at 33rd and Avenue O. Tickets, at $30 each, must be purchased in advance and are available online at dickensonthestrand.org. The evening will include a lecture by Hawksley on the life of Charles Dickens. She will also sign books at the event; copies of her books along with books by Charles Dickens will be available for sale.
She will lecture on the impact of “A Christmas Carol” on subsequent Christmas traditions on both Friday and Saturday evenings as the guest of honor at Dinner with Dickens, a traditional five-course English dinner. The dinners will take place at Ashton Villa, 2628 Broadway, on Friday, December 3 at 7 p.m. and on Saturday, December 4 at 8 p.m. After her lecture, to be delivered during dessert, she will be available to sign books. Dinner tickets, at $65 each, must be purchased in advance and are available at dickensonthestrand.org.
Hawksley will also be available to sign books at each of the English Country Breakfasts, scheduled for Saturday, December 4 and Sunday, December 5 at 9 a.m. at Garten Verein Pavilion, 2704 Avenue O. Breakfast tickets, at $25 each, must be purchased in advance and are available at dickensonthstrand.org.
She will also sign books for festival ticket holders at the Tremont House Hotel from noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 4, and from 3 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5.
For a full list of festival highlights, go to http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Dickens_Festival_Highlights.asp
For a full list of separately ticketed special events, go to http://www.galvestonhistory.org/Dickens_Special_Events.asp
Go to www.galvestonhistory.org for full ticket information.