If Mullan put into his hat a creator of gargoyles and spinner of melodrama, he pulled out an innovator who broke all the rules. Simon Callow has surpassed Patrick Stewart’s old one-man performance of the Carol in recent decades and he even portrayed Charles Dickens himself doing a public reading of A Christmas Carol in a Doctor Who special in 2005. ‘The Artful Dickens is both an exposure of the trickster’s methods and a celebration of close reading. Even if you know a lot about Dickens you will find revelations in it, and if you know nothing about Dickens and want to learn what makes him great it will be the perfect appetiser ’ – John Carey, The Sunday Times You must, and should, read Mullan’s book. Each chapter shoots off in a fresh direction and illuminates it. Simons one-man show of Charles Dickenss A Christmas Carol is at the Arts. Mullan’s book is too rich to capture in a review. QUICKFIRE Simon Callow on splashing out on party clothes and a face that. Praise for John Mullan’s The Artful Dickens: The Tricks and Ploys of the Great Novelist With discussion and readings from the book, Mullan and Callow brought us Ebenezer Scrooge, the curmudgeonly businessman who decries Christmas with ‘Bah! Humbug!’, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Future, who take Scrooge on a journey through his own life, and the kindly clerk Bob Cratchit and his sick son Tiny Tim. In December 2022 Mullan and Callow came to Intelligence Squared to celebrate this most beloved of Dickens’ stories and discuss how a work which Dickens originally intended to be a political tract about the misery of the Victorian poor became one of the most enduring Christmas classics. Callow, renowned actor, director and author, has written two books on Dickens, portrayed him on film and television, and has been thrilling audiences since 2011 with his sold-out one-man performances of A Christmas Carol. Mullan is a professor of English literature, whose recent book, The Artful Dickens, reveals the tricks and ploys of this most eccentric of literary geniuses. What is it about Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that has enchanted the public since its publication in 1843? Few people are as well placed to answer that question than John Mullan and Simon Callow.
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