Harrogate based Cause UK will be managing a big Christmas Giveaway in the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, they will be giving away 2,500 audio book CD’s of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” to school children in Yorkshire.
Clair Challenor-Chadwick. MD of Cause UK is also a trustee of ‘Dickens Gift to Yorkshire,” a charity set up to promote Dickens educational and arts-led initiatives in the County. “Dickens was a regular visitor to Yorkshire and to towns like Harrogate. In 1858 where he said Harrogate is “The queerest place with the strangest people in it leading the oddest lives”
Clair said: We want to shout about Dickens and his Yorkshire legacy, which doesn’t seem to have been capitalised upon at all.
This year working with Selina Scott and local business people, Cause UK successfully negotiated for Songs of Praise to feature the project on their broadcast this Sunday.
Cause UK organised for Film crews to spend the day in Malton last Tuesday visiting key locations linked to one of Dickens’ most well-loved books, A Christmas Carol.
Television presenter Selina Scott and MD of Cause UK, Clair Challenor-Chadwick hope that Yorkshire can build on its links with Dickens and create a special festival in Malton celebrating the connections next Christmas.
Clair said: Malton was incredibly lucky to buy a rare edition of A Christmas Carol at an auction in New York two years ago.
We really want people in Malton and the surrounding area to see the potential for this book and what a wonderful gift it is to Yorkshire.
Dickens was a regular visitor to Harrogate, Bolton Abbey and Malton where his best friend, Charles Smithson, lived. When Smithson died aged 39, Dickens attended his funeral in the town and dedicated an early edition of A Christmas Carol to Mrs Smithson.
It is said that Dickens was also inspired to base Scrooge’s Counting House on Smithson’s office in Chancery Lane, in Malton.
Clair Challenor-Chadwick, from Cause UK, who helped co-ordinate the purchase of the book, said they hoped to continue to celebrate the legacy of Dickens in Yorkshire.
Chef James Martin also took part in the filming.
Clair said: We were very lucky to get James, as he was serving 90 covers that evening and he kindly took time out from his busy kitchen to serve Smoking Bishop (mulled wine), a Dickensian delicacy, and traditional gingerbread to the school children who took part in the filming.
Meanwhile, the ‘Dickens Gift to Yorkshire’ charity which manages the book and promotes educational and arts-led initiatives plans to give away 2,500 audio CD’s of the book to school children in Yorkshire.
Clair Challenor-Chadwick, trustee of the charity said: We want to promote the spirit of the book to as many young people as possible in Yorkshire; to introduce a new generation of young people to Dickens and celebrate his links to God’s own County.
For more information about the project go to www.causeuk.com
