Blogs & News

Events : August is the Sunday of Summer

Autumn Events from Elizabeth Gaskell's House We’re enjoying the last of the summer with days out and the odd bit of sunshine, but you don’t need to look too closely to spot the signs that autumn is on its way. The blackberries are ripe for picking, dusk is arriving a little bit earlier and soon it’ll be time to celebrate a new season of online events from Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. Swap long summer nights for cosy evenings indoors

blog : A Complicated Friendship

Both Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens have each provided us with timeless pieces of literature, which are only gaining more and more in popularity as time goes on. Elizabeth and Charles have both become household names, and their works are embedded in British literary culture. Novels such as North and South (1854-55), or Great Expectations (1861), no longer just form part of a compulsory school reading list, but they are enjoyed and celebrated widely. Their adaptations into TV

blog : North and South and the Fern Bed

The garden gates remain locked, as they will be for some weeks yet, I suspect. But it does give time to explore another way in which North and South has influenced the planting in the garden. Last week I identified roses as a motif in the novel and I think ferns, or maybe more accurately, green, sunlit woodland, can also be seen as a thread of happiness and fond memories throughout the novel. In Chapter 2 Margaret returns

blog : North and South in the Garden

The garden gates at Elizabeth Gaskell House are closed at the moment and the garden volunteers are unable to weed, plant, prune or mow. The plants carry on flowering, however. A volunteer whose daily permitted exercise makes possible the taking of photos of the garden has sent evidence that the yellow tulipa sylvestris, the primroses and the snakes-head fritillary are giving their annual show.  I am away from Manchester, though not as far away as Margaret Hale's brother was