l’m wandering around London with Charles Dickens rattling around inside my head at the moment.

I listened to the audiobook of David Copperfield, which I started out of a sense of duty after watching the very soppy but extremely lovely Richard Curtis film About Time in which the time travelling father played by Bill Nighy describes how he has used the extra time that his superpower gives him reading: “For me, its books, books, books. I’ve read everything a man could wish to Twice. Dickens three times.” I haven’t read Dickens once so thought I should give Copperfield a go. And I ended up totally engrossed. Audiobooks seem to go into my head more readily than read books. I think its because the voice actor performs the book which makes the text more dramatic and vivid. David Copperfield sped by and when it was finished I missed him and his world so much that I thought I would give Bleak House a try. And now I’m half way through and hooked. Its even better than Copperfield, with some truly memorable legal characters. Its set around the chancery court and the interminable case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce and has inspired me to visit all of the lost Inns of Chancery and the area of legal London between Holborn and the river in recent weeks. Its eerie and exciting to be listening to a scene taking place in Lincoln’s Inn whilst walking through it – an experience I highly recommend. Old London seems to come alive in the company of Dickens’ novels.

Anyway, in for a penny… I have been meaning to go to Chucky D’s house in Doughty Street which has long been turned into a museum in Dickens’ honour. So with the characters of Bleak House in my head I headed to the Charles Dickens Museum. Lesson one from my visit is don’t go on a Monday. It doesn’t open on a Monday. I found this out by visiting on a Monday.

Returning the following day I went in for a look round. Dickens moved here in 1839 from Furnival Inn, a year after marrying Catherine and they stayed for a couple of years. He wrote The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby whilst living here. Not a bad return for two years work. This was a time when Dickens star was rising and exploding over London, his family expanded as children arrived and life must have been thrilling for him.

The museum is spread across 48 and 49 Doughty Street, which have been knocked through to give more space, and rooms have been restored to something like they would have been in Dickens’ day. There are extracts from his books that complement the rooms and explain what living there would have been like. Its not a big place and I walked around it in twenty minutes but it does give a feel of what the domestic Charles Dickens was like and I enjoyed the time I spent there. You are guided round the house by a silhouette of Dickens painted on the walls and pointing out your route, a nice touch.

I’m finishing this blog entry here because I want to get back to Bleak House. The baddies are circling Lady Dedlock and I’ve got to find out what happens next…