ACCLAIMED horror writer Ramsey Campbell will narrate a special musical satire in aid of Wirral's food banks later this month.

The prolific Wallasey-based writer, film critic and biographer will read the part of the 'Ghost' in contemporary morality tale New Dickensian at the Wilfred Owen Museum in Argyle Street, Birkenhead on Saturday, January 19, starting at 6.30pm.

Produced by Oxton-based songwriter Dean Johnson, it is inspired by the work of nineteenth century novelist and social commentator Charles Dickens, whose classic works include Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.

In the production, Dean asks if we have returned to the bleak bedlam of Dickens' age.

It tells the story of high-flying and ruthless stockbroker Ethan Shrewd and beleaguered junior partner Rob Cadgit, a single parent whose self-harming teenage daughter he desperately strives to bring up alone.

Shrewd's life unravels in the cut-throat world of his own making.

Even his toxic relationship with wicked girlfriend Esther McBeth reveals what Dean called 'the chasm and emotional void that cuts a swathe through today's society'.

Dean, who performs the music in the piece, told the Globe: "The term 'Dickensian' was coined to describe anything that reflects the dark, squalid, desperate times in which most of the 'poor' that peopled writer Charles Dickens' classics lived.

"The more well-off characters were often a complete contrast to the homeless, crippled and thieving urchins that survived and worked on the busy streets of Victorian England.

"Dickens drew most of his inspiration for these litter-strewn rat-infested cobbled sewer-ways on what he had witnessed in Merseyside.

"He was a committed campaigner for the abolition of the dreaded workhouses, including the notorious Birkenhead institution, which he helped close whilst tirelessly urging social reform for the most downtrodden of society.

"In the present day there is the rise of food banks and mass homelessness resulting from the mandatory curse of the 'Universal Credit'.

"Britain in 2019 has become a cruel and arid place, a tinderbox of anxiety and hardships."

Tickets for New Dickensian are £5.

All profits from the performance will go to Wirral Foodbanks.