One of Scotland’s most celebrated literary sons and a top radio personalty will take to the stage in Aberdeen to celebrate the life of Charles Dickens.
Bestselling author Ian Rankin has been invited to speak about the famed 19th century writer alongside Today programme host Jim Naughtie as part of the international Dickens Fellowship gathering.
The group’s annual conference will be held in the Granite City next year, and the Aberdeen branch of a worldwide fan club has great expectations that the event will attract thousands of academics, scholars and aficionados from all over the globe.
Dr Paul Schlicke, honorary senior lecturer at Aberdeen University and chairman of the Aberdeen Dickensian Fellowship, is organising the event.
It will take the form of a live interview conducted by Mr Naughtie at the Aberdeen University Arts Lecture Theatre.
Dr Schlicke said: “We’re terribly pleased about it, and Ian has been very gracious.
“We had about 250 people come just to hear Jim last time he was up to speak about Dickens, so I’m hoping we can attract that size of crowd or even bigger, now that we’ve got a double show of both him and Ian.”
Dr Shlicke explained that if was not for Dickens, Mr Rankin’s descriptions of Edinburgh in his acclaimed Inspector Rebus series would not have been so vivid.
He said: “Ian Rankin, before he hit the big time, started doing a Phd in Scottish literature.
“What he would like to do on the day is concentrate on Dickens’ Bleak House, which was the first English novel to have a detective in it, and being a story about crime and the underworld, it really influenced his work.
“My own feeling is that when I first started reading Ian Rankin he was the most Dickensian contemporary writer that I know in that way that he evokes place so well.
“What I admire so much is not that he spins such a good yarn, but he just brings Edinburgh to life miraculously, in the same way Dickens did with London.”
The conference will take place across Aberdeen from July 20-25 next year, with Mr Rankin’s appearance on Saturday 23. Tickets will be available closer to the date.
