Thread by @lucindahawksley

I keep being asked what #Dickens would have made of #Brexit. Charles & Catherine Dickens took their family to live in #Genoa, #Italy for a year (in 1844-1845) – something Brits will no longer be able to do after 29 March. #travel

Before moving to #Italy, Charles #Dickens employed Antonio Gallenga, a political #refugee from #Parma who had migrated to #London, to teach him Italian. In #Brexit Britain, Gallenga would no longer be allowed to work legally.

#Dickens wrote a #travelogue about his year in #Italy. ‘Pictures from Italy’ details the family’s travels through #Europe to their new home in #Genoa, & Dickens' #travels around the country. In #Brexit Britain Dickens would no longer have the right to work in another EU country.

#Dickens wanted to move to #Genoa in #Italy so he could #write in the same place in which #Byron had lived in 1822-23 – and where he #wrote part of #DonJuan. In the world of #Brexit Britain, neither #poet nor #author would be eligible to live in another #EU country.

#Dickens wrote his 2nd #Christmas book, ‘The Chimes’ in #Italy. Untrammelled by the need to worry about whether he was eligible to live & work in another country, he overcame the #depression he’d been suffering & was free to be creative. He didn’t have to worry about #Brexit.

A couple of months after moving to #Italy, little #Katey #Dickens became very ill. She was attended by an English doctor at great expense. Had the #EU existed then, the #Dickens family would have been eligible for #free reciprocal healthcare. Post #Brexit we’ll lose that. #NHS

Charles #Dickens was embarrassed by how slowly he learnt #Italian compared to his cook, an English woman who travelled to #Italy with the family & fell in love with an Italian. They married. In #Brexit Britain, she & her husband would struggle to be allowed to live together.

Charles and Catherine #Dickens were Francophiles. They sent several of their sons to school in #Boulogne, #France. Now, teachers in international schools around the #EU are being told they may not have jobs after #Brexit. tes.com/news/no-deal-b…

The #Dickens family moved to #Paris in 1855, where Charles gained inspiration for articles and ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ (1859). Dickens also gave readings in Paris. He didn’t need to worry about needing a post-#Brexit work visa. He had the right to live & work in #France.

While living in #Paris, Charles #Dickens hired Daniele #Manin, a political #refugee from #Italy, to teach his daughters Italian. Over century and a half ago, Dickens understood refugees needed help & work, not racism & hatred – he was so far ahead of #Brexit Britain mentality.

In #Paris, the #Dickens daughters, #Katey & Mamie, took lessons with William #Thackeray’s daughters, whose grandparents lived permanently in #Paris. In the era of #Brexit Britain, Thackeray’s elderly parents would be panicking about what was going to happen to them.

Charles #Dickens’s daughter #Katey, married a fellow artist Carlo #Perugini. His family left #Italy as political #refugees when he was a child. Carlo’s work is in galleries around the world. In #Brexit Britain, Carlo & his family would have been forced onto a #migrants register.