Although you can watch me on-line, (details further down the page), I have retired from public speaking and as such, I will not be taking any more bookings.

I have enjoyed giving my talks for over a quarter of a century, but it's now
time for me to move on and do other things . . . whilst I can.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have
booked me for my various talks.
Over the years, wherever I have given my presentations, I've met
some wonderful and very interesting people and I've always been made
very welcome . . . And hopefully we have had a few laughs on the way.
I would also like to thank Nick Jenkins for maintaining my website
and also coming up with the idea for my "Charlie and The Dig" talk . . .
Over 200 bookings for that talk so far and nearly always a "full house".
and it has brought a lot of joy to a lot of people. Thank you Nick.
I will miss you all . . . I really will, and it will be a great wrench to
stop what I have loved doing for so long . . . but as I have already said,
. . . it is time for me to move on and do other things.
Kindest regards and best wishes to you all, Charlie.

But ! Having said that; you can still watch Charlie performing ! He was filmed at the University of Suffolk giving his presentation entitled, Charlie & The Dig”. We now have the link on the university website: we hope you enjoy the experience. (It's advisable to turn off the auto subtitles whilst watching the recording). When you reach the end, or pause it, you'll see recommendations to other videos. Annoyingly, we can't switch these off but believe it or not, there are fewer than if you were to visit YouTube directly to view them!

Charlie was also recorded by the Chelmsford Civic Society giving his talk entitled “History of Spoken English” . . . This was done in two parts. Our earlier observation about YouTube recommendations applies here too.

Part One; from Celtic times to the end of the Wars of the Roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part Two; the Tudors and Stuarts to the present day

 

Charlie has a further project in the pipeline ! He is going to be recorded reciting classical works, including Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Byron, T.S. Eliot and Edward Lear to name but a few . . . in a Suffolk accent.

The link to this recording will be shown here once completed.

Charlie and The Dig!!!

Charlie was personally chosen by the great Ralph Fiennes to be the dialect coach for the wonderful Netflix film The Dig. Charlie has created a fascinating new talk about his experiences preparing Ralph and the cast for their roles and Charlie will reveal the extraordinary lengths Ralph Fiennes took, not only to play Basil Brown, but to become Basil Brown! It also includes some hilarious tales from behind-the-scenes.

History of spoken English

This is not a talk on split infinitives, and what the differences are between the past participle and the past tense. Definitely not! Charlie shows how the seeds of spoken English was first sown, and how each invading force affected the English language with the different sounds they brought. Charlie includes a dialect tour of the British Isles, demonstrating the different facial expressions of each dialect. He also shows how some people he knows that lip read can tell what dialect a person has.