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Celebrated children’s writer Hans Christian Andersen arrives, unannounced, for a stay at Gad’s Hill Place in the Kent marshes – home to Charles Dickens and his large, charismatic family.

To the lonely and eccentric guest, the members of Dicken’s household seem to live a life of unreachable bliss. But with his broken English, Andersen doesn’t at first see the tensions in the family: undeclared passions, a son sent to serve in India, and a growing strangeness at the heart of Dickens’s marriage.

5 STARS “It’s beautifully written and the story is a fascinating one… Max Stafford-Clark’s production sweeps us from one encounter to another” What’s On Stage

4 STARS “Barry captures excellently the sense that Dickens’ supposedly contented family life was one of his greatest fictions” Guardian

“Magnificent… Theatre gets no better” British Theatre Guide

“Will become a classic” Country Life