A living link to literature

LUCINDA DICKENS HAWKSLEY would make a wonderful Dickensian heroine. Related to the famous author through his eighth child, Henry Fielding Dickens, and with large eyes, an animated manner and a streak of subversive humour, she could be one of Dickens's spirited characters.

Charles Dickens's great-great-great-grand-daughter has been involved in some aspect of Dickens scholarship for most of her professional life, from writing books and appearing on television shows about her illustrious forebear to becoming a patron of London's Charles Dickens Museum.

It is in her capacity as museum patron that Hawksley's passion is most evident: she regularly conducts personal tours and her knowledge and warmth for her subject is evident. "I think we are possibly the only museum with such a strong family link. My father [Henry Dickens Hawksley] is a trustee and he often gives talks, too."

The museum feels more personal than many writers' houses.

"When I walk into the museum, I always feel as though I have entered a family home and I love the fact that so many of our visitors tell me the same thing. I think what attracts people to the museum is that it is an intimate look at such a celebrated man, a chance to get to know the real Charles Dickens.

"Most people know about his works and his public persona but at the museum they are able to find out what he was like as a person," she says.

Last year, 25,000 international and domestic tourists visited, the majority from Britain and the US but plenty, too, from Japanand Korea.

"I think the reason people are fascinated by writers' houses in general is that the human spirit has an affinity for literature of all forms ... and Dickens is one of those authors who transcends language barriers," says Hawksley. "Societies change, cultures change but human nature never changes and Dickens was a superb observer of human nature."

The Charles Dickens Museum, 48 Doughty Street,London. Entry £5 ($9) adult, £3 child, £14 family. See dickensmuseum.com and lucindahawksley.com.