News about Charles Dickens

Miriam made the controversial comment while being interviewed by Kirsty Wark on BBC Radio 4's Front Row - sparking outrage from listeners. Anti-Semitism campaigners slammed the corporation after its highest complaints body refused to uphold an objection to the Aug 13 broadcast. When questioned about a memorable Charles Dickens character from her childhood, the 83-year-old Harry Potter actress said: 'Oh, Fagin without question. Jewish and vile.' She then said: 'I didn't know Jews like that then. Sadly, I do now.'

The nights are drawing in and a chill is in the air. So there's only one solution - cosy nights in front of the TV. From a gloriously naughtly bonkbuster to the return of two comedy favourites from the wacky world of fashion, there's plenty to stream this weekend. Our critics have scoured hundreds of shows to bring you the very best to watch on demand this weekend.

A leading university has provoked fury for putting a 'ludicrous' trigger warning on Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales because they contain 'expressions of Christian faith'. Critics accused the University of Nottingham of 'demeaning education' for warning students about the religious elements of the works of medieval literature that tell the story of a pilgrimage to one of the most important cathedrals in all of Christendom. They said teachers were guilty of 'virtue signalling', adding that anyone studying such a famous collection would not need the Christian references pointed out. The Mail on Sunday obtained details of the notice issued to students studying a module called Chaucer and His Contemporaries under Freedom of Information laws. It alerts them to incidences of violence, mental illness and 'expressions of Christian faith' in the works of Chaucer and fellow medieval writers William Langland, John Gower, and Thomas Hoccleve.

Today marks more than five years since the start of the Wagatha Christie case - the surreal, undeniably petty, yet irresistible legal soap opera that has captivated the nation all this time. Few could have predicted a row that began with a single Instagram post could have metamorphosed into one of the 21st century's most extraordinary celebrity sagas. And now, £1.8million in court fees later, it STILL rumbles on...

My family and I are descended from the original Moses Pickwick (The Pickwick Papers). He was a foundling, born in 1694, from Pickwick, near Bath. He was taken to a Corsham workhouse where he was given the name Moses, and Pickwick from his birthplace. He married Ann Marshman in 1719 and had 11 ­children. I am descended from ­Miriam, his youngest daughter. Moses's grandson Eleazer (1749-1837) established a Bath coaching business and took over the White Hart Inn, opposite the Pump Room. Dickens would likely have seen Pickwick coaches when he traveled to and from London and Bath as a reporter.

Alice in Wonderland, Noddy, Harry Potter, Tracy Beaker, they are the books we all grew up reading but Constance Craig Smith discovers what made their authors tick in Sam Leith's The Haunted Wood.

It was one of Britain's greatest ever structures, constructed in London's Hyde Park in just 190 days between 1850 and 1851 - in time for Prince Albert's Great Exhibition. Now, a study answers the mystery of how London's 1,850-foot-long Crystal Palace - at the time was the world's largest building - was assembled so quickly. Designed by renowned English architect Sir Joseph Paxton, the Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park at a cost of £80,000 (nearly £10 million in today's money).

Hundreds of books have been removed from schools as a result of the Florida law. Author Stephen King, known as the 'King of Horror,' was shocked to learn 26 of his books were banned.

The Jewish actor, 83, was speaking to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist amid her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings to life the author's most colourful characters in a one-woman show. And in a response to a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Wark about the character that stuck in her head as a child, she responded with the Oliver Twist villain. The broadcaster has now removed the comment from the programme - saying that it should have been challenged at the time.

Photographic calling cards of the leading lights of Victorian horticulture, described as the 'original social media', have gone on display online. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has made its collection of 19th century calling cards available to the public for the first time in a digital gallery, as it calls for help in identifying the handful of unnamed portraits among them. The early photographs left by visitors were displayed in the homes of their hosts as evidence of their popularity and social standing, or could even be traded among friends and sold by photographers, the charity said. The collection, which came into the RHS's care via one of the society's former secretaries and from an author and director of science at the charity, includes nurserymen, flower growers, professional gardeners, botanists, and entomologists, many of whom are depicted nowhere else.

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: Has Keir Starmer , apparently bewitched by his enforcer Sue Gray, read former chief secretary to the Treasury David Laws's 2016 account of working with Sue in the Cabinet Office? 'Unless she agrees, things just don't happen,' wrote Laws. 'Cabinet reshuffles, departmental reorganisations, the whole lot - it's all down to Sue Gray… Our poor, deluded voters think the Prime Minister holds the reins of power.

Moon's Rare Books is more than a bookstore; it's a time capsule disguised as a shop. Reid Moon, the store's encyclopedic owner, curator, and historian, breathes life into ordinary objects. His passion for storytelling transforms the shop into a living, thousand-year-old library amidst the modern allure of The Shops at Riverwoods in Provo, Utah .

EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: With Just Stop Oil agitators continuing to blight the lives of holidaymakers, does King Charles have a view on hands-on protesters? In a 2021 interview on the future of the planet ahead of COP26 in Glasgow , he was asked if he sympathised with 'direct-action' environmental activists. He said he did, adding: 'But it isn't helpful, I don't think, to do it in a way that alienates people.'

A National Trust property in Somerset is bringing in contractors to deep clean the chandeliers - and any visitor that quotes the hapless Trotters will be urged to make a voluntary donation. In the 1982 episode called A Touch of Glass, Del Boy and Rodney are hired by a member of aristocracy to clean the chandeliers at a mansion in Dorset. They ready themselves with a sheet to catch a priceless hallway chandelier as their grandad goes upstairs and unscrews the wrong one. The line 'Brace yourself, Rodney, brace yourself' followed by another chandelier hurtling towards the floor cemented the series' place in television history.

On Monday a friend told me, almost in passing, that she was leaving her 'miserable marriage'. I didn't know there was anything especially miserable about it, although I'd always thought she was way more fun, interesting and smart than her frankly quite boring husband. Having been stuck with him for several hours at a friend's wedding, I'd often wondered since how she put up with him. But, who knows, he probably felt the same about me. I couldn't say I saw it coming then, but I honestly wasn't surprised. After all, she's not the first to announce imminent divorce. She's not even the second or the third. She is, in fact, about the 15th woman I know in their mid-40s to late-50s who has turned around in the past few years and said... Is this it? Really? For the next 30-odd years? No thanks.

Weekend Magazine has put together a list of 50 of the best podcasts you need to listen to over summer. Some include historical podcasts such as The Last Soviet and The Prince, and crime podcasts like Vishal, The Missing Cryptoqueen and Serial.

A handwritten Sherlock Holmes manuscript that was annotated by Arthur Conan Doyle is tipped to sell for nearly £1m. The legendary author produced the manuscript for The Sign of Four, his second novel about the fictional detective, in 1889. It was originally sent to J.M Stoddart, an American businessman and editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, who wanted to publish the book in the US.

The author produced the text for The Sign of Four, his second novel about the legendary detective, written in 1889 and specially adapted for US readers. The pages covered in crossing-out lines and corrections were originally sent to J.M Stoddart, an American businessman and editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, who wanted to publish the book in the US. Stoddart had suggested the concept behind the book at a dinner hosted at London's Langham Hotel also attended by fellow writer. And now the original manuscript has emerged for sale at auctioners Sotherby's New York, with an eye-catching estimate of $1.2million, or £960,000.

Labour will end Dickensian 'DIY dentistry' and dental deserts across England, the party's health spokesman has pledged. The party is aunching adverts on Monday featuring an image of a child's mouth with rotting teeth in select constituencies where dental practices have shut their doors to new NHS patients. Wes Streeting has said July 4 is a golden opportunity to 'stop the rot' and rescue NHS dentistry - especially in 'dental deserts' such as Bolsover, Stroud, and Filton and Bradley Stoke - rather than leaving desperate patients to do it themselves with pliers. Labour's Dentistry Rescue Plan will propose supervised toothbrushing in primary schools after NHS figures revealed the number one reason why children aged six to ten years are admitted to hospital is to have their decaying teeth extracted.

If you thought Hamlet's prospects were grim then spare a thought for Suzie Eddie Izzard , whose valiant attempt at playing every character in this contemporary reworking of Shakespeare's classic tale has gone down like an egg sandwich on a rush hour tube. The versatile actor, comedian and activist has embarked on what could arguably be an over-ambitious undertaking at London's Riverside Studios, with fans flocking to see her single-handedly deliver one of the Great Bard's greatest theatrical accomplishments. Across a painstaking two hours, twenty minutes and five lengthy acts, Izzard, 62, plays every character - from the ultimately doomed Hamlet to Danish monarchs Claudius and Gertrude, Polonius, Horatio and Ophelia - hell, he even tackles the ghost of Hamlet's father.

As he tells it, the story of Gary Stevenson, a working-class geezer and self-styled YouTube economics guru is a tale worthy of a modern-day Charles Dickens. The 37-year-old socialist, who claims to have the formula for a fairer economy, says he made so much money in the City that he never needs to work again. He also claims to dispense his economic wisdom for free - though his recent best-selling memoir, to be found on coffee tables all over trendy Islington, is said to have earned a six-figure advance. He's hardly John Maynard Keynes.

From law dramas and animations to football documentaries and wedding rom coms... there's almost too much to choose from Disney+ right now. We've selected the 50 best offerings - sifting through thousands of options so you don't have to. Looking for a new series or to stream on Disney+ now?

When she was born at Kensington Palace on May 1, 1964, was seventh in the line of succession. Weighing 6lb and 2oz, she was the first direct descendant of a sovereign in 145 years - since Queen Victoria 's birth in 1819 - to have been born at Kensington Palace. And  the last royal to be born in a palace rather than a hospital. Her father, Anthony was not present for the birth but arrived an hour afterwards. Beaming, he then told the press: 'She's a super baby'. Sarah was two-and-a-half years younger than her brother, David. Her grandmothers - the Queen Mother and Lady Rosse - were among the first relatives to see her. Other family visitors included the Queen and Angus Ogilvy, the husband of Princess Alexandra.

EXCLUSIVE: Last year, Britannia was named the UK's worst large hotel chain by Which? for the 11th year in a row. Ahead of the summer holidays, MailOnline visited five coastal Britannia hotels to see what residents living in the shadow of the hated chain's impressive property portfolio thought of their stewardship.