December 15, 2024 - On this midwinter full moon we're joined from across the sea by Gerald Charles Dickens, who talks with us about our favorite story - his great-great grandfather's classic Christmas ghost story, A Christmas Carol. Join us to find out all about Gerald Dickens' childhood memories of A Christmas Carol, its origins and its sly sleight of hand.What is it about A Christmas Carol that it remains such a classic and a powerful story?In defence of Scrooge the businessman - not a complete villain?Charles Dickens' early childhood with a father in debtor's prison, child labor, humiliation, lonliness and parental abandonmentThe importance of books and stories in Dickens childhoodThe Man who Invented ChristmasDickens' writings and his marvelous descriptions of food, celebration and togethernessThe tradition of ghost stories for Christmas, and Dickens' love of ghost storiesThe haunting tale of TheSignalman, and its real-life, deadly inspirationDickens' terrible PTSD related to rail travelGerald Dickens' favorite A Christmas Carol filmsGerald's American tour of his one-man show of A Christmas Carol and how he got started working as an actor with his grandfather's writings; the eucatastrophe of forgetting his notes!How Charles Dickens' stories lend themselves to actors' interpretationsFavorite lines from A Christmas CarolWas Marley Scrooge's only friend?Noticing something new in A Christmas Carol every time we read itDickens' influence on our now-traditional celebrations of ChristmasGerald Dickens talks about his own books, including his experiences over 30 years of touring with A Christmas Carol - Gerald Dickens: My Life on the Road with A Christmas CarolWhat it's like to stand on the same stages as his great-great grandfatherAnother book by Gerald Dickens, Dickens and Staplehurst: A Biography of a Rail Crash - the real life traumatic incident that led to the writing of The SignalmanMentioned in the podcast: On the Road with Gerald Dickens blog - https://geralddickens.wordpress.com/Gerald Dickens' website, videos and books - https://www.geralddickens.org/Charles Dickens' books read as audiobooks by Gerald Dickens: https://www.audible.co.uk/search?searchNarrator=Gerald+DickensDenholm Elliott in The Signalman - I couldn't find it on Youtube at the moment, but Tom and I were able to watch it here: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c73c3Tom's stories recorded during lockdown, Tales for Troubled Times: https://www.orkneyology.com/tales-from-tom.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.