Words: Claire Smith
Image: Jennifer Robertson – Kyte Photography

So Miriam – why do you love Charles Dickens?

I think from the very beginning of Oliver Twist, my first Dickens book when I was 11, I fell into Dickens’ world. He pulls you in. I have an affinity with Mr Dickens because I am excessive in some way, and so is he. People think he was a Victorian, but he was a Georgian, born in 1812. That affected him – the rapacious sex, the excess, the great groaning tables. And of course, he was a great storyteller.

You are now 83 years old. I take it this is not your first Fringe.

I first came in the 1950s and saw Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies in Look Back in Anger. I was in the Cambridge Footlights as a student. In 1989 I brought Dickens’ Women to the International Festival – and it was very successful. In 1989 I was Mere Ubu in Pere Ubu. So I’ve been quite a few times. I’m very glad my director for this show is Annabel Leventon – the first person to appear naked in Hair in the 1960s. She is absolutely beautiful.

What is new about this show?

This is the first time I have brought myself into a show about Dickens. It will be a cross between a book reading and a chat show. And I will be doing characters, but I won’t say which ones. People will have to come and see the show. I’m not going to put this into a film; I want to be directly eye to eye. It’s thrilling.

Will you be out and about?

I hope so. I am registered disabled but I do want to see some of the shows. It’s a glorious time. It’s the greatest explosion of art and artistic endeavour that has ever been.

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits
Pleasance at EICC, Pentland
16:00
Aug 7-15