Dickens was known as one of the best after-dinner speakers of his day. It was a period when elaborate formal dinners were the standard fundraising method for charities and other institutes, and the speeches at such occasions were printed by newspapers from shorthand reports on the occasion. Dickens himself did not use notes, but these eyewitness reports allow the reader to gain a very close idea of what he actually said on hundreds of public occasions throughout his career. The organisations he was involved with - here elaborated by extensive headnotes on his participation in each body - give...