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The touring exhibition 'Writers Revealed' has already caused a stir in Busan, South Korea where the British Library and National Portrait Gallery's collaboration on world-changing thinkers and writers in English drew more than 30,000 visitors to South Korea's second city and world-class port.

Other writers featured span the centuries and include Thomas More and William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Bronte sisters,Thomas Hardy and today's JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame.

 

 

The National Portrait Gallery's International Project Manager Charlotte King said that Busan Museum had been delighted with the appeal of the Exhibition.

She added: “We expect far bigger visitor figures for Shanghai Museum, which receives over four million visitors a year.”

Shanghai is a cultural hub in China, where there is a large and growing interest in English literature.

Stephen McGregor, Chair of Wisbech and Fenland Museum, said: “The inclusion of Great Expectations in this important international exhibition once again highlights the breadth and significance of the collections here and the manuscript will be brought to a new audience.

“The manuscript will have been away from Wisbech for ten months but given the importance of the exhibition we are very pleased to support it and being able to participate is for the long-term good and standing of our museum.”

 

 

Images - Top to bottom

The manuscript from Wisbech in Dickens' handwriting alongside his portrait on display at Busan in Autumn 2025. © Busan Museum

Wisbech Museum's greatest treasure – the first page of the manuscript as Dickens wrote it in 1860.

Charles Dickens by Daniel Maclise, oil on canvas, 1839 © National Portrait Gallery, London.