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Showing off Dr. Ray Bernreuter's invitation from Buckingham Palace....Phil Beard as Pip, Sandy McCarthy, Ray Bernreuter, Judi Cross as Miss Haversham, Roger Jerome as Charles Dickens and Dickens' Fellowship President Tom McCarthy....

The local friends and followers of one of the world's great writers, Charles Dickens, gathered at Club Lentinas in Chatham on Saturday evening to help celebrate the 200th anniversary of his birth. In attendance were Charles Dickens himself (Roger Jerome), as well as Pip (Philip Beard) and Miss Haversham (Judi Cross) from the Dickens' novel Great Expectations, the book being read by the local Dickens' Book Club, a spin-off of the Chatham-Kent Dickens' Fellowship which hosted the event Saturday. C-K Dickens' Fellowship President Tom McCarthy was also in costume. Folowing an authentic English dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, those who attended were treated to Dr. Raymond Berneuter's collection of the 200 best Dickens' quotations and a skit by the Dickens' Players......Dr. Berneuter will be travelling to England this week to attend the Queen's Reception in honour of Dickens' birthday to be held at Buckingham Palace. The Dickens' Fellowship hailed the evening a complete success. cktimes' photographer John Gardiner dropped by the event and snapped this photo.....