Mrs Dickens tells her story

Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens: Her Story…

So the world may know he loved me once

For her appearance at the Mere Literary Festival, Annie Elliot will perform as Mrs Dickens, bringing her story to life. She will give dramatic readings from her book Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens – Her Story – ‘So the world may know he loved me once.’ and will answer questions put to her by Peter Clark, before opening a discussion with our audience

About Annie Elliot

Annie Elliot has an MA in Creative Writing and a BA (Hons) in Literary Studies. Her short stories and flash fiction have been successful in literary competitions. She has been longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Award and has written a booklet to help teachers understand dyslexic children’s difficulties. Before retiring, Annie was a college lecturer, a civil servant and a newspaper reporter. She now tours this country and abroad telling the story of Mrs Dickens including regular performances at The Charles Dickens Birthplace Museum in Portsmouth.

Find out about Annie at: www.annieelliot.co.uk

About the Book

After twenty-two years of marriage, the world-famous author banished Mrs Dickens from their home with their nine children and wrecked her reputation to protect his own when he fell in love with an eighteen-year-old actress.

This is Kate’s story: a poignant self-portrait of a woman struggling to achieve peace of mind by making sense of a marriage that defined, but nearly destroyed her. Sifting through her husband’s letters after his sudden death she relives the happy times they shared but also speaks up for herself to expose the darker side of the man the world reveres.

On her deathbed, Kate asked her daughter to give Charles’s letters to the British Museum ‘so the world may know he loved me once.’ This novel fulfils her dying wish and restores her to history as more than a famous author’s discarded wife. It bestows on Kate the respect, dignity, agency and voice she was denied in life.

Praise for Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens: Her Story…

At last, Mrs Dickens’s view of that awful marriage. What a story and what a talented storyteller!

Dame Jenni Murray

Completely brilliant – a very dark novel deceptively posing as light-hearted comedy

Fay Weldon

Mrs Dickens finds her own voice in this dazzling novel about an abusive relationship.

Andrew Davies

About Peter Clark

Peter Clark is an author who is based in Frome. He has published books entitled ‘Dickens’s London’ and ‘Dickens’s Kent’ which explore areas closely associated with the great author’s life and work. Peter has also translated nine books from Arabic and written books on Winston Churchill and the first British Labour Government of 1924. 

During Frome Festival in July, Peter played Charles Dickens with Annie Elliot taking on the role of his wife in a sell-out performance of a comic scene she had adapted from her novel ‘Mr & Mrs Charles Dickens – Her Story – ‘So the world may know he loved me once’.