Six Weeks To Write A Masterpiece: Charles Dickens & A Christmas Carol

19th December 2025 at 13.00pm (GMT)

This event is free to attend.

This is a hybrid talk, you may book either online or onsite tickets. As this is a high demand event, please only book an onsite ticket if you know you will be able to attend. 

Click here to book an ONSITE ticket. 

Click here to book an ONLINE ticket. 

The online talk will be streamed over Zoom. You will receive the link about an hour before the talk is due to begin. If you purchase a ticket with less than an hours notice, please give us a call on +44 20 7405 2127 and we will send you the link manually. 

If you have any questions, please contact our events team on events@dickensmuseum.com 

Please note that all special events are non-refundable. 

By the winter of 1843 Charles Dickens was in trouble. His most recent book series, Martin Chuzzlewit, was not selling well. His wife, Catherine, was pregnant with their fifth child and he was facing financial difficulties, made worse when his publishers threatened to drop his income if his book sales did not improve. Under pressure, Dickens decided to embark upon an entirely new project. Drawing upon his experience of the desperate poverty he saw in London and Manchester, and determined to open people’s hearts to the extremity of need all around him, he picked up his quill and created one of the most famous books in English literary history.

This December, join the 3x great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, Lucinda Hawksley, as she examines the remarkable story of A Christmas Carol. Examining Dickens’s early childhood, the beginnings of his literary career and the pressures of juggling his new found fame with his young family, Lucinda will explore how A Christmas Carol came to be written and unpicks the impact of this most famous of Christmas stories.

Lucinda Hawksley is an author, art historian and broadcaster. The 3x great granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, she has published works including Dickens & Travel, Dickens’s Artistic Daughter and Dickens & Christmas. She is also an award winning travel writer, President of the Dickens Fellowship and Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum.