The Evening Read-In: The end is in sight for Scrooge…

Like the Three Spirits, our time with Ebenezer Scrooge is rapidly approaching  its conclusion - it's the last part of our A Christmas Carol Evening Read-In tomorrow. How time flies when you're reading...

Last week was a rather sombre affair as we encountered the ultra mysterious Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a spectre of death. Though it didn't have an awful lot to say, thankfully the Evening Readers did. We were rather impressed at Scrooge's brave decision to put the prospect of personal improvement and redemption before fear and had to feel great empathy at his very surreal ordeal; as one reader pointed out it was "like seeing your own obituary published in a paper then watching your grave being robbed" - very unsettling indeed. Also hardly anyone could fail to be moved by Bob Cratchit's sorrow - a completely different aspect of death but another nobody should ever have to bear witness to. In the end, we concluded that Dickens may have well introduced the concept of 'tough love' through Scrooge's emotional journey and it was not just Scrooge that was left humbled as we took away the fact that "we enter the world with nothing and leave with nothing".

Hopefully, tomorrow's concluding part will be a much cheerier affair, in keeping with the increasingly Christmassy mood that is descending all around. Join us at 9pm on the dot for the last time with the first Evening Read-In (keep your eyes peeled in the New Year for announcement of the next Read-In...) and don't be shy - it's the final opportunity to air your thoughts on the story by tweeting along with the accompanying hashtag #eveningreadin .