Celebrations to mark Charles Dickens's 200th birthday on Tuesday 7 February will take place all over the world, from Australia to Zurich.

Co-ordinated by the Charles Dickens Museum and Film London, Dickens 2012 is an international campaign to mark the bicentenary of Charles Dickens's birth - a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore the life of a writer whose genius has inspired millions worldwide.

On the morning of 7 February, a special ceremony at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey will honour the memory of the great author by laying a wreath on his resting place. The ceremony will have The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall as guests of honour, following their visit to the Charles Dickens Museum - the only surviving home of Dickens in London - earlier that morning.

BAFTA®-winning actor and director Ralph Fiennes and author Claire Tomalin will be special readers during the event at the Abbey, which will see well-wishers from the worlds of literature, film and the arts pay tribute to the Victorian master.

The day will also see the timeless works of Dickens read worldwide thanks to the British Council's Dickens 2012 Global 'read-a-thon', a reading marathon which will take place in 24 hours in 24 different countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe.

The centerpiece of the 'read-a-thon' will be the UK contribution, which will take place at a special event presented by Film London, the British Council and BFI Southbank in the evening. Best-selling author David Nicholls will be on stage doing a live reading from 'Great Expectations', the book he recently adapted for the screen for a new feature film starring Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, due out later this year.

The event, held at BFI Southbank, will also see the world premiere of Dickens in London, an innovative, cross-platform collaboration between Film London, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Drama. Directed by artist film-maker Chris Newby and written by Michael Eaton, the feature forms a biographical portrait of Dickens's life via film and the spoken word and it stars Samuel Barnett, Alex Jennings and Antony Sher.

Accompanying Dickens in London will be the premiere of three short films commissioned by Film London under the Dickens 2012 Short Film Scheme. Chanya Button's Fire is a dramatic take on Charles Dickens's most private world, whilst Fits and Starts of Restlessness, by Tim Shore and Gary Thomas, offers a 'map' of one part of contemporary London refracted through the world of Dickens and Andy Taylor's 80,000 Christmas Lights reflects on children within care the care system (Dickens tirelessly campaigned to end child poverty) alongside the meaning of Christmas, recognised as a quintessentially 'Dickensian' festivity.

The capital will also see celebrations at Mansion House and Southwark Cathedral, which will join those planned at Dickens's birthplace in Portsmouth, across the UK, Spain, France, Switzerland, the US, Australia and New Zealand, to name a few.

More details of the full celebrations on 7 February can be found on the official Dickens 2012 website.