Cedric Charles Dickens the Dickens Fellowship, a worldwide association of people who share an interest in the life and works of Charles Dickens, first taking that position on the death of his father in 1968, and again on his retirement in 1976, when he also founded the Dickens Pickwick Club, a society with an international membership. This he kept true to the spirit of the original in "The Pickwick Papers" by only allowing men to join, which in 2000 led to an accusation of sexism. In demand internationally as a guest and speaker at meetings of Dickens Fellowships and other events connected with
Racism in the work of Charles Dickens Racism in the work of Charles Dickens Although Charles Dickens is known as a writer who was strongly sympathetic to the disadvantaged in Britain, in common with many eminent writers of his time he expressed attitudes that can be interpreted as racist and xenophobic in his journalism and fiction. While it cannot be said that he opposed fundamental freedoms of minorities in British society or supported legal segregation or employment discrimination, he defended the privileges of colonial Europeans and was dismissive of what he believed were primitive cultures. The "Oxford Dictionary of English Literature" describes Dickens as nationalistic, often stigmatising