Many of us step in the world of Victorian England through the books of the period’s most famous writers. Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Wilkie Collins and Anthony Trollope gave us timeless classics still popular today. Alongside literary luminaries there were many others who may not be so widely known nowadays, but were household names at the time, such as William Harrison Ainsworth and Thomas Mayne Reid.

They lived and worked at the time when Kensal Green became the country’s most prestigious cemetery, and they, along with their friends, rivals, colleagues and associates came to rest here (Charles Dickens wished to be buried in Kensal Green but was buried at Westminster Abbey instead). As we walk among the splendour of Kensal Green’s early Victorian funerary architecture, we’ll learn about these writers’ lives and times, their friendships and rivalries, and will come closer to the England of 150 years ago.