Blogs & News

: Online Talk: Motherhood – The Good, The Bad and The Tolerable

‘No one loves me, -no one cares for me, but you, mother’ Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels are often pre-occupied with mothers and motherhood. The role of mother was regarded as the peak of Victorian womanhood. Women were thought to be domestic angels, designed for the sacred role. As the real life mother to four daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell was once dismissed as a cosy writer of domesticity, wrongly regarded as being ‘unintellectual… and easily shocked’. So, what did she actually have

: Online Talk: The Lady of the Lamp – Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Gaskell

Florence Nightingale is an icon. A pioneer for women and a campaigner for improved healthcare, she was the founder of modern nursing. Yet while the ‘Lady of the Lamp’ is rightly recognised for her caring career in the Crimean War, her work as an eminent mathematician is less well-known. Florence Nightingale was also the first woman to be accepted into the Royal Statistical Society. Now you can find out about the connections between this exceptional woman and Elizabeth

: Online Talk: ‘A Flattering Malady’ – Disease and Dying in Victorian Fiction

“Consumption, I am aware, is a flattering malady” Charlotte Brontë, 1849Disease and dying were common hazards for characters in Victorian novels. For the modern reader, 19th century novels can sometimes seem packed full of sentimental deathbeds like Jo's death in Charles Dickens' Bleak House.The reality was that in 1800 approximately one in every three children died before their 5th birthday. Fatal diseases such as consumption were common for all ages and literature often reflected real life. In this new

: Online Talk: Writing to Change Hearts and Minds – Ruth and Other Reforming Novels

Elizabeth Gaskell is recognised as a giant of Victorian literature. Yet stories such as Ruth (1853) were also reforming novels aimed at changing public opinion. Her complex female characters and tales of industrial strife show she had plenty to say about contemporary class and sexual politics in tales like Mary Barton and North and South too. But Elizabeth Gaskell was not the only reform writer. How and why did authors like Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Charles Kingsley, Frances Trollope and Harriet

: Online Talk: The Real Ruth – Mapping Elizabeth Gaskell’s Ruth

Enjoy a literary journey of discovery as you go on a virtual visit to the places, buildings and landmarks featured in Elizabeth Gaskell’s shocking novel Ruth. Extracts from the book map the way to locations around Wales, Cheshire and the English countryside with speaker Dr Diane Duffy. Join us for a fascinating new insight into Elizabeth’s novel about Ruth, a ‘fallen woman’ in Victorian society.  You can delight in some beautiful 19th century writing and vivid descriptions along the