Pencil drawing of Charles Dickens sitting a desk in a richly furnished office.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-DIG-pga-07120.

Dickens on Dickens: How A Christmas Carol Became a Classic

An Evening with Lucinda Dickens Hawksley

November 21, 2024

5 p.m. ET
Free. Virtual.

In the spirit of Christmas and the message of compassion and hope in A Christmas Carol, Ford’s Theatre is partnering with Hope for Henry, which educates and motivates young patients to face treatments with confidence. Support the Ford’s Theatre 2024 Charity Drive. https://my.fords.org/donate/q/acc-charity.


Every holiday season, Ford’s Theatre brings Charles Dickens’s beloved tale A Christmas Carol to life on stage. Renowned for his vivid portrayals of London’s impoverished and compelling redemption of its protagonist, Ebenezer Scrooge, Dickens’s personal experiences shaped a story with timeless resonance. This season, join us for a special online discussion with Lucinda Dickens Hawksley, Dickens’s great-great-great-granddaughter and an accomplished author herself. Discover fascinating insights into the life, work, and enduring legacy of Charles Dickens from a unique family perspective.

A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre runs November 21 – December 31, 2024. For more information and to purchase ticket, visit A Christmas Carol – 2024 – Ford’s Theatre (fords.org)

Headshot of Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.
Photo © John Quintero Photography.

Lucinda Dickens Hawksley is an author, broadcaster, lecturer and award-winning travel writer, who has worked as an interviewee, consultant and presenter on TV and radio shows worldwide. Her many TV credits include Miriam’s Dickensian Christmas, a show she created with the Dickens-loving actress Miriam Margolyes, A Very Country ChristmasMrs. Dickens’s Family Christmas and Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas. She has written three biographies of female artists: Kate Perugini (née Dickens), Princess Louise and Lizzie Siddal. Her other books include, Letters of Great Women (2021), Elizabeth Revealed (2018), Dickens and Christmas (2017), The Writer Abroad (2017), Bitten by Witch Fever: Wallpaper and Arsenic in the Victorian Home (2016), Charles Dickens and his Circle (2016) among others. Her latest books are Victorian Christmas (2024) and Dickens and Travel (2022).

Lucinda is a great-great-great-granddaughter of Charles and Catherine Dickens, and a Patron of the Charles Dickens Museum in London. She was recently sworn in as President of the International Dickens Fellowship.