What the Dickens?

Where I live is just 15 minutes away from Rochester in Kent. For any lovers of the works of Charles Dickens, it is a must visit. The shops of the old High Street are obviously different from what the great author would have been used to, but there are still some similarities in the fact that the buildings have largely survived from those days. The Royal Victoria and Bull Hotel is over 400 years old and looks little different on the outside from the time when Dickens stayed there. It was featured in the Pickwick Papers and Great Expectations. Just off of the High Street is Restoration House, the model for Satis House in Great Expectations. Dickens would also have been very familiar with the magnificent Rochester Cathedral which features in Pickwick Papers and his final unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

All of this history is a huge draw for tourists and locals alike, but the high point of the entire year for me is the Dickens Christmas Festival which I wrote about in the linked article back in 2022. It is scheduled to take place on the first weekend of December, whenever that is (December 6 – 7 in 2025), and I fervently hope it goes ahead as it was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid and again in 2024 due to adverse weather conditions which never materialised, and it was a massive loss to my Christmas build up each time. For me, that weekend is the start of my festive season, and if you are anywhere near Rochester on the first weekend of December this or any other year it is an absolute treat. Singing Christmas songs with the Cathedral behind you and Rochester Castle in front of you is just seasonal magic. I will be there on the Sunday and I would recommend it to anyone nearby who loves Christmas.

A Landmark Post

This is my 250th post since I restarted this blog. It was mothballed in 2011 after 6 posts where I tried, very unsuccessfully as it turn out, to publicise a book I had written and self published. I restarted it in 2021 and I have been slowly building it up ever since. A few of my posts have achieved some good numbers with Memories of Singing Together from 2023 having over 800 views, but others are stuck on two or three. David Pearce – Popular Culture and Personal Passions 2023 Highlights and Hidden Gems was written at the end of 2023 to give a push to some of my blogs from that year. Maybe I should try this again. What do you think? Although the figures will have changed the quality of the blogs haven’t so I’d love a few more reads on these posts.