Paul Lewis at his Ramsgate Society talk in 2023

Why is Wilkie Collins important to Ramsgate? The answer is that this Victorian novelist was a regular visitor to our town and the connection is no less as strong as the link between Broadstairs and his close friend, Dickens. In his day his most famous novels like Woman in White and The Moonstone were quite as popular as anything from Dickens but unlike Dickens, he did not work hard to present an image of impeccable moral standing. Even today you will not find his novels in the libraries of the stately homes of the National Trust – a reminder that many regarded them as more suitable for servants and the working class.

It was a pleasure to welcome Paul Lewis to give a Ramsgate Society Talk two years ago – Paul may be better known as presenter of BBC’s ‘Moneybox’ but he is also Editor of Wilkie Collins’s letters and Secretary of the Wilkie Collins Society. If you missed his talk on The Seaside Life of Wilkie Collins you can still read and download it HERE

And now there is another presentation taking things even further in our understanding about Wilkie Collins:

This lecture was given on Zoom by Paul Lewis to SoCal – the Southern California Dickens Fellowship on 18 October 2025. It is copyright (c) Paul Lewis 2025 but Paul has made it free to use as long as you give him a credit.

The talk covers the ‘journey’ of a lifelong friendship as well as geographical journeys. Through his deep familiarity with the letters of Wilkie Collins, Paul is able to decode some surprising references including: What journeys did they go on? When did they catch an STD and how did they joke about it? When did they last meet before Dickens’s death? And how did their friendship last beyond the grave?

Use the button below to watch this talk – acting soon is recommended as we cannot promise how long it will be available!