Blogs & News

: Online Event: Valentine’s – Romantic Moments

In this lively Valentine's online event we take a closer look at your favourite romantic moments from literature and TV adaptations, including Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Sit back and enjoy a Valentine's treat as our speakers go head to head to celebrate the most romantic scenes that literature has to offer. Swoon as Thornton and Margaret master their feelings in North and South. Gasp as Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet overcome all

: Online Talk: Cranford – A TV Classic

The BBC TV adaptations Cranford (2007) and Return to Cranford (2009) were hailed as rich and funny portrayals of Victorian provincial life. The series featured a wealth of stars including Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis. Heidi Thomas's screenplay reflected both the gentle humour and the pathos of rural life in a Cheshire town on the cusp of industrial change. Book now The series detailed the private and public lives of the middle-aged women of Cranford, a town ‘in

: Online Talk: ‘I wish I were a girl again, half-savage and hardy, and free’ – Emily and Anne Brontë

Elizabeth Gaskell’s famous biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë went a considerable way to creating the myth of the famous writer living up on the moors. But what of the image of Charlotte’s two groundbreaking literary sisters, Emily and Anne Brontë? How has our view of these trailblazing writers changed over the years? Book now Emily Brontë’s enduring classic Wuthering Heights makes her the author of one of the finest novels in the English language and shows her

: Online Event: From Page to Screen – An Evening with Andrew Davies

A special online evening with iconic screenwriter Andrew Davies, who brought us the much-loved adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters (1999) alongside some of the best-loved film and TV of the last forty years, including the legendary BBC series of Pride and Prejudice (1995) starring Colin Firth. Emmy award-winning Andrew Davies is responsible for a host of classic adaptations including Middlemarch (1994), Emma (1996), Vanity Fair (1998), Bleak House (2005), Sense and Sensibility (2008) and Sanditon (2019)

: Online Talk: South and North Rather than North and South: Ellen Wilkinson, Elizabeth Gaskell and the ‘Big Strike’ novel

Elizabeth Gaskell may have been one of the first to write a ‘picket-line’ romance, in her much-loved classic North and South, but she was certainly not the last. In the centenary year of the ‘General Strike’ we uncover another novel which combines romance with industrial relations - Clash by another iconic Manchester woman: Ellen Wilkinson, one of the first women Labour MPs (Member of Parliament) and best known for leading the ‘Jarrow March’ of the unemployed in 1936.