Peter Clark

With Dickens's Bicentenary on the 7th of February, and the publication of Dickens's London, we welcome Peter Clark as our Featured Author this month. 

Peter Clark spent most of his working life promoting cultural relations in the Middle East. He has a BA from the University of Keele and a PhD (though he chooses not to use it: he only scraped a PhD) from the University of Leicester on nineteenth century British history. He has translated novels, history, drama, poetry and short stories from Arabic. He has led cultural tours to Turkey, Syria and Egypt and has written onBritish radical history. He has been a cultural consultant and designed the International Prize for Arabic Fiction ('the Arab Booker') of which he is a Trustee. He has been a lover of Dickens since he read OliverTwist at the age of 9; he has been reading and re-reading Dickens ever since. As a tour consultant, he enjoys demonstrating the connection between writing and place. Dickens’s bicentenary provided an opportunity to write this book.

Haus Publishing: What compelled you to write this book?

Peter Clark: I have had the idea for years. The publisher offered me a contract for a publication to celebrate Dickens’s 200th birthday. How could I resist?

HP: Did anything surprise you, or anything surprising happen, during the course of writing the book?

PC: The universal appeal of Dickens. In the past I have written about people who were, though important in their world, relatively unknown (Henry Hallam, Marmaduke Pickthall, Wilfred Thesiger). Everyone has a knowledge or opinion about Charles Dickens. There has been so much scholarship that it has been difficult – though not impossible – to say something original. 

HP: What writer or writers have had the greatest influence on you?

PC: Bertrand Russell, George Orwell, Edward Gibbon, Jane Austen, Marmaduke Pickthall, Wilfred Thesiger.

HP: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

PC: Don’t hesitate. Just write. Keep a diary.

HP: Why did you become a writer? Was it a lifelong goal?

PC: I always have wanted to write, though it took a while to get going. Why? A basic shyness and hesitancy made me feel I could express myself better by writing.

Peter will be giving talks over the next couple of months, at:

The City Museum, Portsmouth on the 19th of February at 1pm

Daunt's, Cheapside, London on the 22nd of February at 7pm

The University of Kent in Canterbury, on the 1st of March at 4pm

Waterstones, Richmond, London, on the 10th of March at 1pm

Brent Library, London, on the 4th of April at 6.30pm

Chelsea Library, King's Road, London, on the 17th of April at 2pm

Please email amelia@hauspublishing.com for further information about any of these events, or to RSVP.