It’s November 1859 – and Elizabeth Gaskell is in Whitby
It's Sunday October 30th 1859 and Elizabeth Gaskell is finishing a long letter to her friend, Charles Eliot Norton which she'd started five days before. She writes: I have missed the Saturday mail, - & Meta, Julia & I are going for
Read more »
“Will you walk into my parlour?”
One of Elizabeth Gaskell's close friends was fellow writer Mary Howitt (1799-1888). Both she and her husband William were key figures in Elizabeth's early writing career. She had written to them in 1838 with an account of a visit by her to
Read more »
Elizabeth Gaskell’s lady’s maid – a dramatic imagining
The background: earlier this year, the House was successful in securing funding from the Arts Council for a collaborative programme of arts activities which included a series of creative writing workshops. These used the current House exhibition, Household Commotion - Elizabeth Gaskell and the 'awful
Read more »
Reader, I started writing Jane Eyre in Manchester!
Yes indeed, Charlotte Bronte really did begin to write Jane Eyre in Manchester! And Elizabeth Gaskell gives us much of the story in her biography of Charlotte Bronte. So, what then is the story? By 1846, Charlotte's father's sight was worsening due
Read more »
Mrs Gaskell and Miss Betty Barker’s Alderney Cow
This must be one of the best known and best loved stories from Cranford: An old lady had an Alderney cow, which she looked on as a daughter. You could not pay the short quarter-of-an-hour call, without being told of the wonderful
Read more »
