A celebration of the life and books of a 19th century literary giant to mark his 200th birthday plus‌ World Book Night with Angie Le Mar www.brent.gov.uk/dickenscityread www.brent.gov.uk/worldbooknight 020 8937 5619
Brent Council presents…
Highlights include: ☞ the City Read family launch with interactive Dickens drama performance and stories, craft and fun history activities ☞ film screening and discussion by Birkbeck College of David Lean’s Oliver Twist
plus World Book Night
Brent Council is very proud to welcome you to a special celebration of Charles Dickens’ 200th birthday with a city-wide read of Oliver Twist. Borrow Oliver Twist from Brent Libraries and join fellow Londoners in reading the book. Find out more about the story, its author, and London’s history in a month-long programme of free events in libraries, Brent Museum, Brent Archives and online during April. There is something interesting, informative and fun for everyone. City Read London will bring Dickens and Oliver Twist to life for Londoners with hundreds of events taking place in all 33 London library services, plus museums, cinemas and other venues across the capital. Join in at www.facebook.com/cityreadlondon Plus there’s World Book Night celebrating books and reading with VIP guest and top ranking comedian/actress Angie Le Mar, stand-up comedians, Shakespeare pop-up theatre and great books to give away. Look out for Easter and St George’s Day story and craft activities. All events are free except where otherwise stated. For events with this symbol it is essential to book one week in advance at event venue. A list of library addresses and telephone numbers is in this leaflet.
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☞ fascinating journeys into the past with Dickens authors Peter Clark, Jenny Hartley and Robert DouglasFairhurst ☞ the secret life of Queen Victoria and her special relationship with a handsome Indian muslim with author Shrabani Basu ☞ the chance to discover and handle objects from Brent Museum and Brent Archives’ collections ☞ a hip-hop Dickens workshop for young people with the Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company ☞ an Oliver Twist fancy dress competition and storytelling performance ☞ World Book Night with the fabulous comedian Angie Le Mar and a host of stand up comedians plus Shakespeare birthday celebration – Much ado about Shakespeare!
Willesden Bookshop at Willesden Green Library Centre and Queens Park Bookshop will be supporting author events with book sales of signed copies. www.willesdenbookshop.co.uk www.queensparkbooks.co.uk Event listings p3 –7
For children aged 5 – 11
Family Learning: Children must be over five and accompanied by an adult (based on one adult with a maximum of two children).
Monday 2 April City Read London launch day: introducing Charles Dickens 12noon – 4pm Willesden Green Library Centre Take part in City Read London and read Oliver Twist in April. Borrow the book from any Brent library. A Dickens of a thing! 12noon – 2pm An opportunity to explore, learn about and handle a range of curious Victorian objects from the Brent Museum collection. Drop-in family activity at Brent Museum. Make and decorate a Victorian top hat 12noon – 2pm
Victorian tales and toys: dragonflies and peg people 12.30 – 2pm Story and craft activity. Charles Dickens: live and direct! Family fun drama performance 2 – 3.15pm An interactive dramatisation of the life and work of the great writer presented by The District Six Theatre Company. For children and adults.
Family Learning: make your own curiosity shop and story in a pop-up book 10.45am – 1pm Town Hall Library 2.15 – 4.30pm Ealing Road Library Story and craft activity.
Tuesday 3 April Easter baskets craft workshop 2.30 – 3.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus Make your own bunny ears craft workshop 2.30 – 3.30pm Town Hall Library Victorian puppet theatre craft workshop 2.30 – 4pm Willesden Green Library
Wednesday 4 April Hip Hop Dickens 11am – 1.30pm and 3 – 5.30pm Willesden Green Library Centre: Brent Museum An opportunity to work with The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company, founded by MOBOaward winning artist Akala, to produce music and spoken word performance pieces inspired by the work of Dickens. Workshops are designed for young people aged 13-18. Contact museum@brent.gov.uk for details. Victorian tales and toys: dragonflies and peg people 11am – 12.30pm Ealing Road Library 2.30 – 4pm Harlesden Library Plus Story and craft activity. Dickens’ London 7 – 8pm Willesden Green Library Author Peter Clark illuminates the settings of Dickens’ greatest works, his life, journalism and his fiction. Peter’s deft interweaving of the modern capital with Dickens’ writings allows us to stand in central London and travel to Victorian times, experiencing the streets, sights and sounds through his senses. Copies of the book will be on sale.
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Thursday 5 April Oliver Twist…in Panjabi and Urdu 1 – 2.30pm Ealing Road Library
What have Charles Dickens and the film Slumdog Millionaire got in common? Find out at a book discussion presented in Panjabi and Urdu by Gulshan Iqbal, chairperson of the Asian Librarians and Advisers Group.
Pickpockets, fog and fried fish? Comic strip workshop 11am – 12noon Willesden Green Library
Draw a comic strip of 12 years old Charles Dickens’ London journey, as he walks from Warren’s Blacking Factory where he was sent to work to the Marshalsea Prison where his father served a sentence for not paying his bills.
Make and decorate a Victorian top hat 10.30am – 12noon Ealing Road Library 2.30 – 4pm Kilburn Library 2.30 – 4pm Town Hall Library
Pickpockets, fog and fried fish? Comic strip workshop 11am – 12noon Kingsbury Library Plus 2.30 – 3.30pm Harlesden Library Plus
See page opposite for event details. Victoria and Abdul
10.45am – 1pm Willesden Library 2.15 – 4.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus
Easter craft activity. Easter basket craft workshop 11am – 12.30pm Ealing Road Library
Victorian puppet theatre craft workshop 2.30 – 4pm Kilburn Library
Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 April Digital Dickens weekend Oliver Twist online Get virtual with Dickens. Take the challenge and read Oliver Twist in 173 days of bite-sized sections online. Or be speedy and read more bites in a day. www.turtlereader.com/authors/charlesdickens/oliver-twist-day
London-based author Shrabani Basu discusses the inspiration behind her book based on the previously undiscovered diaries which show the intense relationship between Queen Victoria and the Indian man employed to be her teacher. The diaries tell the story of the queen’s close relationship with a tall and handsome Indian muslim called Abdul Karim. Copies of the book will be on sale. Wine refreshment provided courtesy of the Salusbury Winestore, Queen’s Park. Wednesday 11 April Victorian puppet theatre craft workshop 2.30 – 4pm Harlesden Library Plus
10.45am – 1pm Town Hall Library 2.15 – 4.30pm Ealing Road Library
Easter craft activity. Victorian toys: Victorian games and puppet craft workshop 2.30 – 3.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus
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10.45am – 1pm Kingsbury Library Plus 2.15 – 4.30pm Harlesden Library Plus
Friday 13 April Oliver Twist Day! Family programme 11am – 4pm Willesden Green Library Centre ☞ A Dickens of a thing! 12noon – 2pm An opportunity to explore, learn
about and handle a range of curious Victorian objects from the Brent Museum collection. Drop-in family activity at Brent Museum ☞ Fagin and friends: scary story plus shadow puppets craft workshop 12.30 – 2pm
The world of Oliver Twist: story performance 2 – 3pm
Pickpockets, fog and fried fish? Comic strip workshop 11am – 12noon Town Hall Library 2.30 – 3.30pm Ealing Road Library
See page 4 for event details. Monday 16 April Bookstart story and rhyme time sessions: celebrate Charles Dickens 16 – 20 April: All libraries will celebrate Charles Dickens with a Victorian craft activity* * Willesden Green Library will deliver their session on Wednesday 18 April
www.bookstart.co.uk Victorian tales and toys: dragonflies and peg people 11am – 12.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus 2.30 – 4pm Town Hall Library
Story and craft activity. Tuesday 10 April Family Learning: make the fanciest (Faberge) eggs
Saturday 14 April Family Learning: make your own curiosity shop and story in a pop-up book
Craft activity.
7 – 8pm Kilburn Library
Family Learning: make the fanciest (Faberge) eggs
Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 April Dickensian Childhood weekend Visit www.cityreadlondon.org.uk for events happening across London
Thursday 12 April Food in the Time of Dickens 11am – 3pm Willesden Green Library Centre: Brent Museum Education Room
☞O liver Twist fancy dress competition 3 - 3.45pm Dress up as one of the well known
Tuesday 17 April Oliver Twist: in discussion
characters from Oliver Twist and win a prize for the best costume. The five character categories are Nancy, Fagin, Bill Sykes, the Artful Dodger and Oliver.
7 – 8.15pm Willesden Green Library
Prize gift vouchers provided courtesy of the following Queen’s Park, Salusbury Road businesses:
District Six Theatre Company holds an interactive discussion on the Charles Dickens’ classic covering not only the plot, character and hard-hitting storyline but also casting a critical eye over the film productions and the depictions of Victorian life.
Discover the techniques and ingredients of a Victorian kitchen, with food historian Monica Askay, and try some very Dickensian gruel! Family drop-in event. 5
Wednesday 18 April David Lean’s Oliver Twist 7 – 9.30pm Willesden Green Library
David Lean’s 1948 film adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist is considered one of the great classics of British cinema, admired for its cinematography and particularly for Alec Guiness’ memorable performance as Fagin. This free screening will be introduced by Birkbeck lecturer and author Dr Carolyn Burdett, who teaches on the BA English and MA Victorian Studies courses.
its memorable characters and interlocking plots. Douglas-Fairhurst will entertain with tales of how Dickens endlessly reinvented himself. Copies of the book will be on sale. Wine refreshment provided courtesy of the Salusbury Winestore, Queen’s Park.
Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 April Dickens’ London Visit www.cityreadlondon.org.uk for events happening across London Saturday 21 April Make your own St George’s Day dragon 11am – 12.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus & Willesden Green Library
Thursday 19 April What the Dickens?!
Friday 20 April Robert DouglasFairhurst on Becoming Dickens 7 – 8pm Kilburn Library
Becoming Dickens tells the story of how an ambitious young Londoner became England’s greatest novelist. Dickens would have thrived in today’s networking world, given the fortuitous combination of planning and chance that quickly propelled him from writing facetious accounts of dinner parties and illustrated sporting sketches towards the serialised novel with 6
Raffle prizes provided courtesy of Queen’s Park Flowers plus chocolates and wine. * The Good Ship Comedy Club Mondays, 8 – 11pm Tickets £4-5 For line-ups see: www.thegoodship.co.uk/comedy Email comedy@thegoodship.co.uk for mailing list.
Wednesday 25 April London in 1837
6.30 – 8pm Willesden Green Library Centre: Brent Museum
Test your wits against our panel to uncover the true story about our mystery Victorian objects. A fun, interactive event, refreshments provided.
Look out for pop-up Shakespeare theatre as it’s also Shakespeare’s birthday. Plus food and craft stalls. FREE event but advance booking is essential to avoid over crowding. Book early to avoid disappointment: www.brent.gov.uk/worldbooknight
Monday 23 April World Book Night with Angie Le Mar! 6 – 9pm Willesden Green Library
First Lady of comedy, actress, writer, producer and director Angie Le Mar; plus the best in stand up comedy live and direct from Kilburn’s The Good Ship Comedy Club* join Brent Libraries to celebrate books and the joy of reading. If you are a World Book Night-giver for 2012, join fellow book-givers to donate your book of choice from the top voted 25 favourite books to local residents, community groups and charities. Borrow a book and enter the prize raffle draw.
11am – 12.30pm Kingsbury Library Plus
Join Brent Museum and Brent Archives’ Heritage Officer Malcolm Barres-Baker for an illustrated talk on London in 1837, the year Oliver Twist was first published. The talk will be accompanied by an opportunity to look at genuine objects and documents from the period. Thursday 26 April Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women 7 – 8pm Willesden Green Library
Meet Jenny Hartley as she discusses her book Charles Dickens and the House of Fallen Women. This fascinating book is based on the true story of Dickens setting up a house in Shepherd’s Bush in which girls from
the streets, the prisons and the workhouses might be changed through kindness and discipline, and so be prepared for new lives in the colonies. Find out how the girls Dickens helped, influenced his characters and speculate on what philanthropic acts Dickens would do if he were alive today. Copies of the book will be on sale. Friday 27 April Dickens and Kensal Green Cemetery 6.30 – 8pm Willesden Green Library
Kensal Green Cemetery is rich in associations with the life and work of Charles Dickens; through his beloved sister-in-law Mary Hogarth, fellow writers including Thackeray, Trollope, Collins, Forster and Ainsworth, illustrators, publishers, patrons, actors in his plays, even models for his characters. The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery present a talk on these fascinating local links. Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 April What would Dickens do? weekend Visit www.cityreadlondon.org.uk for events happening across London
Reading Groups: Oliver Twist in translation Translated summaries of Oliver Twist for reading groups will be available in Gujarati, Panjabi, Tamil and Urdu. Reading group discussion dates are: Saturday 7 April, 2.30 – 4pm Gujarati Reading Group Saturday 28 April, 2.30 – 4pm Tamil Reading Group Venue: Willesden Green Library
If you are interested in taking part in a Brent Libraries’ reading group discussion on Oliver Twist, or joining one of the reading groups, email: libraries@brent.gov.uk The online Virtual Book Club will be discussing Oliver Twist throughout April.
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Library members’ Dickens quiz Test your knowledge on Dickens. Oxford University Press are offering prizes to lucky winners of their online Dickens quizzes. There’s one for adults and another for children. Go to: http://www.oup.com/uk/academic/online/library/quiz/ A paper quiz version will also be available at Dickens events in the libraries.
Ealing Road Library Ealing Road Coronet Parade Wembley Middlesex HA0 4BR 020 8937 3560
Harlesden Library Plus Craven Park Road London NW10 8SE 020 8937 3570
Kilburn Library Salusbury Road Kilburn London NW6 6NN 020 8937 3530
Kingsbury Library Plus
522 – 524 Kingsbury Road Kingsbury London NW9 9HE 020 8937 3520
Town Hall Library Brent Town Hall Forty Lane Wembley Middlesex HA9 9HU 020 8937 3500
Willesden Green Library Centre 95 High Road Willesden London NW10 2SF 020 8937 3400
Brent Museum Willesden Green Library Centre 95 High Road Willesden London NW10 2SF 020 8937 3600
Brent Archives Willesden Green Library Centre 95 High Road Willesden Green NW10 2SF 020 8937 3541
Brent Libraries, Brent Archives, and Brent Museum are all wheelchair accessible. 020 8937 5619 www.brent.gov.uk/dickenscityread www.brent.gov.uk/worldbooknight www.facebook.com/lovebrentlibraries www.facebook.com/brentmuseumandarchives www.twitter.com/brentlibraries www.brentbookblog.wordpress.com www.brentmuseumandarchives.wordpress.com