The Charles Dickens Literary Cabaret, Hendricks Library of Delightfully Peculiar Writings, Brighton, May 18

A rusting birdcage, the complete works of Lord Byron, a jumble of broken typewriters and what appeared to be the skull of a sabre-tooth tiger.

This was the candle-lit, Victorian world of the Charles Dickens Literary Cabaret, brought alive under the big-top at the Hendrick’s Library of Delightfully Peculiar Writing.

The gin flowed in elaborate cocktail flavours but the lethal hot gin punch was one to watch out for; the bartender conspiratorially confessed it was made with five bottles of the stuff.

In the pre-drinks crowd the scattering of actors in fur pelts and monocles were tricky to discern from the usual Brighton hipsters.

The cabaret itself was presented by the performance trio The Scary Little Girls, their gags largely stemming from the character set-up.

There was a voluptuous Dickens’ aficionado as mistress-of-ceremonies, a scruffy Cockney assistant who revealed in Shakespearean whispers she was in fact a girl, the beard a sham and that she was here on a prison rehabilitation programme.

Then there was Nom, a gargantuous special needs cell mate, locked up for trying it on with a seagull.

While extremely light on any real literary content, it was made up for with free drinks, decadent props and hearty entertainment.

Maybe that’s cheating a little, and no doubt the act wouldn’t work as well on a bare and sober stage, but the cheerful gin-soaked crowd cackled away nonetheless.