My interest in all things English probably comes from my

My interest in all things English probably comes from my own very Anglican upbringing in what was known as ‘the last outpost’, a part of South Africa with a reputation of being England’s ‘home from home’.
So when a striking image catches my eye, it’s always interesting to know that this far flung outpost of England should play a part in a very English mystery.
This miniature portrait of Charles Dickens aged 31 was painted by Margaret Gillies in 1843 when Dickens was a rising literary star, about to start work on ‘A Christmas Carol’. Gillies portrait of Dickens is regarded as unique, certainly riveting, the fresh features of his face and his large eyes gazing timelessly from the tiny painting. Gillies was commissioned to paint the portrait for a book entitled A New Spirit of the Age featuring exceptional figures from the early Victorian era and it came to be accepted as one of the most important images of Dickens as a young man.
Fast forward 174 years to an auction in Pietermaritzburgh, the administrative capital of KwaZulu Natal, where a man purchased the painting along with other small trinkets as a job lot for £27. Looking extremely downbeat and covered in dirt it was restored and researched by Philip Mould & Co. and identified as Gillies long lost portrait.
How did it arrive in South Africa? Most likely it was brought to the English colony by Gillies’s adopted daughter’s extended family who settled in the region in the 1800s.
Knowing how characteristically English this part of South Africa is, it would be no stretch of the imagination to know that this painting would have once hung in a home with very proud associations of a Victorian homeland.
You can see the portrait at the Charles Dickens Museum, Doughty Street, London when it reopens.