Meet the Team – Yasmin
Posted
6th March 2024
in blog
This week in our meet the team series is Yasmin Choudhry who does all the bookkeeping and accounts for the House.
Yasmin has worked at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House for three years and prior to that she worked in the pharmaceutical industry for a company that manufactured life saving medicines. When Covid hit she decided to change careers and feels that it was fate that brought her to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, as she had spent her youth in love with Elizabeth Gaskell novels and other classic novels.
Yasmin also remembers playing in the garden at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House when she was a child (although she didn’t know it as that then), as her Grandparents lived nearby.
What does you job involve?
As we are a small team, I am pretty much the entire account department. I deal with all the day to day financial activities making sure we pay people on time and people pay us.
What’s your favourite place in the House?
The Brontë Room (pictured above) is my favourite place in the house. It was the room where I worked when I first started and I love the transformation that has taken place in the room over the years. (The Brontë room only opened as an exhibition room in Sept 2022)
What is the best thing about working at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House?
Being surrounded by the history of a much loved famous author. Also seeing the immense passion of the volunteers and my colleagues who are always available for a quick chat and advice. My sister, who loves period dramas and literature, is envious that I get to work here.
What is the worst thing about working at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House?
Realising that you are not actually a main character from Elizabeth Gaskell novel and that Mr Thornton is not going to come up the staircase!
Aside form Elizabeth Gaskell, who is your favourite author?
Recently I have started to read novels by George Gissing, who interestingly also lived in Manchester for a time and was influenced by Charles Dickens, although his subject matters are much darker.
