Dickens's Birthday and a British Navy Hoax

Though he's dead, today we celebrate Dickens' 200th Birthday. If you're a fan of the BBC and/or PBS, this anniversary certainly hasn't escaped your notice. Regardless, it is rather amazing how much more attention some people receive for their birthday after their dead than they likely ever did while alive.

Though the Brits have already had their Dickens - courtesy of PBS we can look forward too our fill in late February and April after season two of Downton through January and early February (with a possible break for March).  Before we dig in to Masterpiece Mystery for the spring and summer.

Some fun Dickens activities for you today include:

A Charles Dickens Birthday Quiz (and answers)

A look at some real life people Dickens knew that may inspired some of the names of Dickens's characters

A Dickens audio walking tour

A Review of the new Dickens biography

Images of Charles Dickens's home interiors (who knew he was so into interior design!)

Dickens's Life in Pictures

Admission Deals to the Charles Dickens Musuem

A walking tour video of Dickens's London, guided by actor Simon Callow - for those of us that can't make it to London

Haven't had your fill of Dickens' London yet? Try this image tour

Dickens in short form - for those that want to celebrate by reading a Dickens novel but don't have the time

How to teach children about Dickens

A ghost story that served as inspiration for Dickens

Also don't forget to visit http://www.dickens2012.org/ for Dickens information and to find fun Dickens events where you are!

Only 102 years ago, also on this day, Virginia Wolf and her (five) pals, known as the Bloomsbury Group,  on February 7, 1910 dressed up at Abyssinians and boarded HMS Dreadnought as honored guests. They enjoyed special attention as royal guests, and when it came to a special dinner feast they only declined for fear that their fake mustaches and beards would fall off! They spoke in a made up version of what they thought could pass as Swahili, that ironically, Virginia Wolfe's brother unknowingly translated for the soldiers. Of course, we know about this incident today because Horace De Vere Cole recounted it in a letter to a friend. The accuracy of this account.... well, we'll never know - but it's an interesting tale all the same!