University of Warwick celebrates Dickens with special 200th birthday mobile App and documentary
The University of Warwick is launching its new Celebrating Dickens Mobile App on Tuesday (7 February) to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens' birth.
In addition to the special Mobile App, the University of Warwick is planning a week-long salutation to one of the greatest ever authors.
Exclusive video content will be released on the Celebrating Dickens site each day, and a new Mobile App will be released on Tuesday 7 February for Android, along with an iOS version for iPhone and iPad. On Friday 10 February the University will release a feature-length documentary, including interviews with Warwick academics and Charles Dickens’ great-great-great granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley.
The Celebrating Dickens Mobile App offers an academic insight into the novels, life and times of Charles Dickens, one of the greatest ever storytellers.
Led by Charles Dickens expert Professor Jon Mee, from the University of Warwick’s English and Comparative Literary Studies Department, the App offers a plethora of podcasts, articles and videos exploring aspects of Victorian Britain, Charles Dickens’ novels and adaptations of his works.
Award-winning screenplay writer Andrew Davies, who adapted both Bleak House and Little Dorrit for the BBC, also contributes with an exclusive insight into how one goes about transferring Dickens’ illustrative text into compelling television (see part one below).
The celebration kicks off on Monday with the publication of a video interview between Professor Jon Mee and his colleague Dr Pablo Mukherjee on 19th century detective fiction and the way Dickens captures crime in his novels.
The following day the Celebrating Dickens Mobile App will be released, with a second video interview with Lucinda Hawksley, exploring Charles Dickens’ early life and some of the influences on his works.
Wednesday sees a short interview with University of Warwick PhD student Gabrielle Mearns, who talks about Dickens’ philanthropic work, while on Thursday Professor Jon Mee interviews Scholar in Residence at the Charles Dickens Museum Professor Bob Patten.
The week culminates with the publication of a 45-minute academic documentary and Professor Gary Watt, from the University of Warwick’s Law department talking to Professor Mee about Bleak House and how Dickens portrayed the legal profession.
Notes to Editors
The Celebrating Dickens website can be found here.
For more information contact Luke Hamer, Assistant Press Officer, on 02476 575601, or on 07824 541142. Alternatively email l.hamer@warwick.ac.uk