The Charles Dickens show celebrating author's link with major Fringe venue founder

Now a family link between Angela Burdett-Coutts and one of Edinburgh's longest-running Fringe venues is to be marked with a star-studded line-up of artists performing readings from Dickens' works.

A direct ancestor of Assembly Festival founder and artistic director William Burdett-Coutts, Ms Burdett-Coutts also co-founded Urania Cottage, with Dickens - a refuge for homeless women, in 1847.

Frank Skinner, Scottish TV star Gail Porter, poet Brian Bilston, and comic Lorna Rose Treen are among those taking part in the 22 performances of Dicken’s works at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Mr Burdett-Coutts, who founded Assembly in 1981 in the Assembly Rooms on Edinburgh’s George Street, said: “Angela and Charles were more than friends — for over a decade they ran Urania Cottage together, and he trusted her enough to dedicate Martin Chuzzlewit to her. It’s a wonderful piece of family history, and there’s something rather fitting about bringing his stories back to a Fringe stage in Edinburgh, told through voices as brilliant and varied as these.”

He added: “Dickens wasn’t just a novelist - he was one of the great performers of his age. His public readings sold out across Britain and America; he acted out every character himself, voices and all, and by all accounts they were spellbinding, even exhausting for him to deliver. Putting his work back in the hands of performers, live on a stage, is really just returning it to where it started.”

The show begins on Thursday, with Paul Foot performing A Christmas Carol, whilst Bebe Cave, Mark Steel, Elf Lyons, Ahir Shah, and Sanjeev Kohli are also set to perform.

Dickens: The Readings will run from 6 to 30 Aug, at Assembly George Square Studios.