Speaker: Roger Askew
5 December 2023
This most celebrated of Victorian novelists led a life as colourful as any of his characters. From his earliest days he was a consummate performer, as actor and reader. However he lived two lives, one public, one private. This lecture will examine the huge popularity he came to enjoy in his lifetime in contrast to the unsteady nature of his personal life. We shall revisit the unique world he created in his 16 novels, his Christmas stories and numerous articles, as relevant and as entertaining today as in 19th century Britain.
Profile
Roger was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School and a choral scholar at Magdalen College,
Oxford, where he graduated with an honours degree in English. He combined a teaching
career with professional singing in London, and after obtaining a further degree in Music
became Director of Music at Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College in Edinburgh.
After retiring in 2003 he returned to the south of England. He is President Emeritus of The
Stoke Poges Society.