Published: 16 February, 2012
by JOHN GULLIVER

I AM more than pleased to report that I didn’t get it quite right last week when I chastised the Town Hall for, effectively, ignoring the Dickens’ celebrations.

Readers have sent letters describing an exhibition at the Local Studies and Archives, in Holborn Library, detailing streets in the borough the great man was associated with. Talks are also being held at the library in the coming months, with one by Ruth Richardson this evening (Thursday) on a workhouse in Cleveland Street, Fitzrovia, near to where Dickens lived.

It is being organised by that estimable body, the Camden History Society.

My information was based on a telephone conversation with the council’s press office.  

Even so, I would have thought the council could have organised one or two theatrical evenings with, say, that great devotee of Dickens, Simon Callow, a local resident. There are lots of venues in Camden that can stage an evening with Dickens.

Considering the money the council wastes from time to time, what mean spirit would begrudge a little expenditure on the man who has given so much to our nation?