Dickens and Childhood

Monday 18 June, 11.00-20.00

The Tetterbys by John Leech (from The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain, 1848)

Dickens was a perceptive observer of the stages of child development, and records his own incoherent and overwhelming feelings of love, joy, fear and pain in his great novels of childhood: David Copperfield and Great Expectations. He was himself the father of 10 children, one of whom died in infancy. His writing swarms with babies, infants and children, scrabbling their way to maturity in the bewildering adult world.

The V&A Museum of Childhood is working with the English Association and the Dickens Fellowship to host a one-day conference on ‘Dickens and Childhood’. The day will include walks, lectures, readings, and parallel sessions on topics that will appeal to students, Dickens experts, and the ‘common reader.’ The event will include an evening symposium of contemporary children’s authors speaking on how reading Dickens has influenced their work. For more information or to book, visit Dickens and Childhood on the English Association website.

Whole day: £30 (£25 student concs)
Afternoon plus reception: £25 (£20 student concs)
Reception plus symposium: £12 (£10 student concs)