AWARD-WINNING author, art historian and travel writer Lucinda Hawksley will be in Havant next month to speak about Charles Dickens – her great-great-great-grandfather.

In her talk at The Spring Arts and Heritage Centre on October 27 ( 8pm) she will explore the extensive circle of friends Dickens drew together around himself.

Among them were writers Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, William Makepeace Thackeray and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. He also surrounded himself with artists, including Clarkson Frederick Stansfield, William Powell Frith and John Everett Millais. He hosted many parties where writers mingled with actors, radical politicians, prison reformers, philanthropists and musicians. This social circle could have been considered quite surprising for one who rose from comparatively lowly origins to become one of the most famous authors in the world.

Lucinda Hawksley is the author of an authoritative illustrated guide to her famous ancestor written to commemorate the bicentenary of his birth in 2012. She is also patron of the Charles Dickens Society in London – and has recently been made patron of the Norwegian Pickwick Club. She has written extensively on the Pre-Raphaelite artists, as well as on historical figures such as Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.

Lucinda’s television appearances include the BBC docudrama Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas with Griff Rhys Jones, and Channel 4’s documentary Dickens’s Secret Lover, which focused on Dickens’s relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan. Her wide-ranging expertise also encompasses her role as a volunteer speaker for the Whales and Dolphins Conservation Society.

Copies of her latest book on Dickens, entitled Charles Dickens and his Circle and signed by the author, will be available to purchase on the night. Tickets for the lecture cost £16, or £14.40 for concessions.

You can book in person at The Box Office, or call 023 9247 2700, or visit the website: www.thespring.co.uk