Blogs & News

Blogs & News : Your Online Events for 2026: Short Stories and More

You are cordially invited to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House’s season of events on Short Stories including Cranford and the Gothic! Fancy some variety? Too busy for a longer novel? These Short Stories are the perfect answer. Plus we have a not-to-be-missed partnership event with the Brontë Parsonage Museum and Jane Austen's House. Elizabeth Gaskell's Short Stories have got it all: comedy, tragedy, sensationalism, realism, journalism and the macabre. This new year, share in the joy of Elizabeth Gaskell's Short Stories from Cranford
Pink roses in the garden

Blogs & News : Cousin Phillis

‘“I loved him, father!” she said at length, raising her eyes.’ Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell, 1863-64 Cousin Phillis is the perfect length – somewhere between a short story and a novel – and a precursor to Elizabeth Gaskell’s masterpiece Wives and Daughters. It tells a coming of age story as Phillis, only daughter of a farming couple, meets and slowly falls in love with railway engineer Edward Holdsworth in Victorian England. What's the Story? The title character
19th century black and white print of mill workers

Blogs & News : Life in Manchester – Libbie Marsh’s Three Eras

'How long is it since you were a beauty?' Life in Manchester - Libbie Marsh's Three Eras, 1847 Life in Manchester – Libbie Marsh’s Three Eras was one of Elizabeth Gaskell’s earliest works and was published under the pen-name ‘Cotton Mather Mills, Esq.’ This very short story looks at motherhood, loss and marriage through the reality of working-class life in Manchester – a precursor to later novels like Mary Barton and North and South. What's Libbie Marsh's First
Cranford illustration women at table

Blogs & News : ‘Cranford is in possession of the Amazons.’

'In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons... whatever does become of the gentlemen, they are not at Cranford.' Best known for the TV adaptation starring Judi Dench, Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Cranford started life as a series of short stories. The first, ‘Our Society in Cranford’, appeared in 1851. It introduced gentle incidents of rural life including characters like the much-loved Miss Matty and her upright sister Miss Jenkyns. There were seven more short stories