Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire! 🔥

Host Dominic Gerrard reads Dickens' account of The Gunpowder Plot from his 1851 A Child's History of England ... Dickens transports back us to 1605, the era of King James I, Guy Fawkes and a conspiracy that shook the nation. This compelling narrative is a tribute to November 5th, a date that continues to resonate through the annals of history. Support the show If you'd like to make...

It is Publication Eve for today’s guest the inimitable Dr. Helena Kelly .  Her latest book The Life & Lies of Charles Dickens   (published by Icon Books ) lifts the cover on what we think we know about Dickens from his friend and sanctioned biographer John Forster. In this episode we try to spend some time with Dickens’ wife Catherine, and understand the enormous struggles they both went throu...

Dominic is joined by the inimitable Professor John Bowen who returns to this series to explore the hidden depths beneath the pages of one of Dickens' most iconic ghost stories - The Signal-Man Written only a year after Dickens  survived the Staplehurst Rail Crash , The Signal-Man finds an author grappling with trauma and the conflicted feelings of fear and wonder at the new railways, mixed wi...

Dominic is joined by the inimitable Dr. Emily Bell who guides the listener through the rollercoaster that is Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins' Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices   - a unique blend of travel writing and ghost stories seen through the eyes of the quintessentially British  characters of Francis Goodchild and Thomas Idle, who amusingly mirror their creators, Dickens and Collin...

Are you an unsung codebreaker? Does your knowledge and feel for Dickens mean that you could be the next person to crack some of the hieroglyphic mystery of the shorthand system that Dickens created for himself. Or are you able to trace the source of the writings that Dickens read from whilst dictating to his pupil Arthur Stone …? A year ago Dominic caught up with Dr. Claire Wood & Prof. Hugo B...

Welcome to this  special one-on-one chat with Armando Iannucci  -  one of the leading comedy writers and political satirists of our time - where we delve into his literary passions and influences. This lively conversation peels back the layers of Armando's lifelong love of Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit in particular -and his interest in John Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost and h...

What does it mean to experience time? Is it a linear journey from past to present, or is it a complex and intricate web of memories, feelings, and experiences? Our guest today is the inimitable Céleste Callen , from The University of Edinburgh , who delves into her thesis that explores subjective temporal experience in Dickens’ fiction,  through the lens of Henri Bergson’s philosophy of time. This...

Welcome to a new series of Charles Dickens: A Brain on Fire!🔥 Today we take a deep dive into Dickens’ final, unfinished novel,  The Mystery of Edwin Drood … Joining us to talk about this extraordinary book, is the inimitable Dr Pete Orford who is a Lecturer in English Literature, and Course Director for the MA research in Charles Dickens, at the University of Buckingham . Pete has written extensi...

What if their scribbles on paper could reveal intimate details about a person’s character, personality, and even their health? Charles Dickens , one of the greatest authors in the annals of literature, is under the microscope in this riveting conversation with Emma Bache , one of the UK's top graphologists. Emma offers her expert analysis on Dickens' handwriting, hinting at revelations t...

What do luxurious wallpapers, deadly poison, and supernatural elements have in common? Join host Dominic Gerrard for a captivating conversation with novelist and literary historian Jon Michael Varese as we unravel the mysteries of his latest novel, The Company . Set in 1870, this gothic tale follows the Braithwhite family as they grapple with the shocking discovery of a poisonous pigment in their...

Dominic   welcomes the brilliant writer Katie Lumsden back to the podcast. Katie's debut novel The Secrets of Hartwood Hall , published by Penguin's Random House, is now out in the shops (both sides of the Atlantic) and ready to be a part of your summer reading. Katie has also  launched a The Mega Dickens Readalong , where you the listener are all invited to read all of Dickens’ novels i...

Dominic is joined by Dr. Nicholas Cambridge who is an Honorary Research Fellow in Humanities at the University of Buckingham and a visiting scholar in Medical Humanities at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University.  After qualifying as an electrical engineer, Nicholas switched career to became a GP and as a medical student won the first ever History of Medicine Prize from the Royal Society Medicine. He...

Dominic is joined by the brilliant actress, poet & playwright Laurie Ogden . Together they talk about her experience filming her TV debut as Biddy in FX's Great Expectations ... Laurie's poetry collection Humaning is available to purchase here:  Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right h...

Dominic is joined by the brilliant Dr. Emily Bell who digs deep into Dickens’ second novel: Oliver Twist; or, the Parish Boy’s Progress … Emily is a Lecturer in Digital Humanities & Digital Skills at  the University of Leeds ; and is an alumna of both the University of Warwick (where she read English) and York where she completed her MA and Phd. She is also Editor of The Dickensian and is a re...

Dominic is joined by the inimitable Steven Knight  who's exciting and daring screenplays include Peaky Blinders, Taboo and SAS Rogue Heroes. Steven also adapted the dark and thrilling FX A Christmas Carol   (with Guy Pearce as Scrooge) and has now re-imagined Great Expectations in a new series led by Olivia Colman. Now screening on Hulu in the US and BBC One in the UK. Support the show If you...

Host Dominic Gerrard reads the opening chapter of  A Tale of Two Cities ... Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard Thank you so much! Host: Dominic Gerrard Series Artwork: Léna Gibert Original Music: Dominic Gerrard Thank you for listening!

Dominic is joined by the inimitable actor and Dickens descendant Harry Lloyd . Together they discuss their first impressions of  FX’s new Great Expectations and Harry's experience of playing Dickens characters in previous BBC dramatisations of his Great Great Great Grandfather's works, and his career more widely. The copyright for this specific episode is owned by FX Networks. Support th...

Dominic is joined by the inimitable broadcaster & historian Alice Loxton who takes us on a journey into the frenzied and scandalous world of London society in the Georgian Period ... Alice is a celebrated presenter on History Hit   and her new book UPROAR! takes a look at the movers and shakers of the time as seen through the eyes of  caricaturists such as James Gillray , Thomas Rowlandson &am...

It's the 10th Day of Christmas ... and Dominic is joined by the brilliant writer Katie Lumsden where they attempt to examine, with fresh eyes, Dickens' long forgotten Christmas Book The Battle of Life ...   An alumna of both Durham & Bath Spa Universities, her debut novel The Secrets of Hartwood Hall   - set in 1852 - is now available to pre-order here . Katie also hosts the hugely s...

Dominic reads a Christmas Day excerpt from Chapter IV of Great Expectations where Pip has to sit through the ordeal of a Christmas Dinner with a heavy  conscience ... HAPPY CHRISTMAS!  Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard Thank you so much! Host: D...

Dominic is joined by the wonderful Dr. Claire Wood again for a special Christmas episode on Charles Dickens' The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton; A Christmas Carol and The Chimes ... Reading extracts from these stories is the brilliant actor Tom Andrews ... HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! This episode was originally broadcast on 21st December 2022 Support the show If you'd like to make a donat...

Dominic is joined again by the inimitable Professor Robert Douglas Fairhurst who returns to this series to explore Dickens' five iconic Christmas Books: A Christmas Carol, The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life & The Haunted Man ... Robert's latest book Metamorphosis: A Life in Pieces is available to order here HAPPY CHRISTMAS !!! This Episode was originally broadc...

Dominic is joined by the brilliant Morgan Lloyd Malcolm : who’s writing for stage and screen includes her pivotal play Emilia - which won three Olivier Awards when it transferred from Shakespeare’s Globe to the West End - and a soon to be released adaptation of Josephine Hart’s Damage for Moonage, Gaumont & Netflix As a writer Morgan also works extensively with Clean Break : a feminist theatre...

Dominic is joined by Gage Mcweeny , who is Professor of English at Williams College, Massachusetts. Gage is an alumni of both Columbia and Princeton, with a specialism in nineteenth-century literature; sociology; and culture. His book The Comfort of Strangers: Social Life and Literary Form   (OUP) examines that Victorian phenomenon of new people emerging everywhere in the Great Cities as Industria...

Host Dominic Gerrard reads the opening chapter of Bleak House ... Support the show If you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrard Thank you so much! Host: Dominic Gerrard Series Artwork: Léna Gibert Original Music: Dominic Gerrard Thank you for listening!