Satis House

Rochester was Dickens' home town and Rochester knows it. You walk down the High Street and every other shop or café is called something like Copperfield's or Little Dorrit's or Miss Twinkleton's. Many of the associations are entirely valid. The huge clock that juts out over the High Street is mentioned in Great Expectations, the Abbey gatehouse is where John Jasper lodged in Edwin Drood, the charitable establishment called the Six Poor Travellers gave its name to a set of stories. And so on.

Just off the High Street on Crow Lane, across from a public park that used to be a monastic vineyard, is the scariest house in all of Dickens. It was created out of two medieval townhouses and sheltered Charles II on the eve of his coronation- in honour of which it is known as Restoration House. But that's not it's real name. It's real name is Satis House- and it's where Miss Havisham lives....

What A Difference Two Years Make

I was attracted by an article about how the BBC- following its success with War and Peace- was about to make a lavish, cinematic adaption of A Tale of Two Cities in collaboration with a noted Hollywood producer and I clicked on it and found it was two years old and the producer was Harvey Weinstein- so that's not going to happen now, is it?

Pity. A Tale of Two Cities is just asking to be made into an expensive mini-series. Riots, massacres, grave robbing, guillotines. I might even have watched it.