Best of times: Dutch Dickens festival brings Christmas cheer

"Merry Christmas," bellowed a top hat and cape-clad gentleman in full Victorian garb, to the amusement of passers-by at a festival celebrating the work of Charles Dickens.

Yet the scene, which could have been plucked straight from the pages of one of the English literary titan's much-beloved tomes, did not take place on the streets of London but in the Netherlands.

Since December 1991, the Dutch city of Deventer has held a two-day festival celebrating the author of such classics as "Bleak House" and "A Tale of Two Cities" and, of course, "A Christmas Carol".

Dozens of carollers belted out Christmas tunes on each corner, while no fewer than 395 Dickensian characters, Oliver Twist included, roamed Deventer's streets.

The festi

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