Charles Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol at the Exchange as part of a UK tour. In 1913, a letter was published revealing that the author was in poor health and exhausted by the demands of the touring and performing schedule. This had been his second visit to Blackburn.Two days later he became ill and he had to cancel a similar dramatic rendition of the book in Preston. The following year Dickens died and it is believed that the reading in Blackburn was his last such appearance.
