TV star joins calls for Dickens push (From Gazette & Herald)

TV star joins calls for Dickens push

11:15am Thursday 5th July 2007 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

A NORTH Yorkshire television presenter and her father have made a rallying cry to Malton to make more of its connection with Charles Dickens.

Selina Scott has long called for the literary link to be celebrated, and is supporting the Gazette & Herald's Dickens Link Campaign to do just that.

Following the opening this year of the Dickens World theme park in Chatham, Kent, she is urging the Fitzwilliam Estate and councilors to take action.

"It is something Malton could do so much better because the infrastructure is already there, " she said. "The town Dickens knew is still here today. Malton just needs some focussing."

Her father, Charles Scott, has said he would be willing, with other like-minded people, to form an interim committee to plot the way ahead.

"Why is it that Chatham can see the value of Charles Dickens yet Malton, with far more connections to this world famous author, can't even be bothered to form a committee to kick start a similar wonderful opportunity? Where is the bottleneck in Malton holding back initiative?" he said.

Dickens was a good friend of Charles Smithson, whose family ran a firm of solicitors in Chancery Lane, and it was their office which the author claimed had been the model for that of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. A regular visitor to the town, Dickens incorporated other people and places he came across there in his novels.

Last month Chancery Lane was re-laid with traditional paving, to give it a look more in keeping with its historic associations, and the Gazette & Herald launched the Dickens Link Campaign to kick-start more action to promote the town.

Miss Scott added: "Malton is a remarkably unspoilt market town. There are not many left in the UK. Why has the quaint solicitors' office in Chancery Lane not been given over to Dickens? It should be the centre piece of a Dickens attraction?. I know there are some energetic and enthusiastic people in the town who want to try and revitalise Malton."

About Dickens World in Chatham:

• Visitors step back in time to immerse themselves in the imposing architecture and street scenes vividly described in Dickens' novels, with a cast of characters who bring his world to life.

• It features Europe's largest themed dark boat ride, transporting visitors from the depths of London's sewers through atmospheric streets, courtyards, markets and shops, to a flight across the roof tops of London.

• The characters and story lines are all authentic.