Graduate Student Essay Prize 2024

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Joan Leach Memorial Graduate Student Essay Prize 2024 Deadline for submissions: 1 February 2024 The Gaskell Journal runs a biennial Graduate Student Essay Prize in honour of Joan Leach MBE, founder of the Gaskell Society. The winning essay will be published … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – an Introduction

posted in: Knutsford, Literature | 0

Our subject of our 2023-24 season of Knutsford discussions is Sylvia’s Lovers. Dr Diane Duffy offers an introduction to Gaskell’s only historical novel. Sylvia’s Lovers (1863) was Elizabeth’s first novel to be published initially by Smith and Elder. George Smith … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – quotes V

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To mark our new season of Knutsford discussions on Sylvia’s Lovers, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled a series of quotes from Chapters 30-37. These chapters will be covered in her March 2024 session.  Follow the Gaskell Society on Twitter and … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – quotes IV

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To mark our new season of Knutsford discussions on Sylvia’s Lovers, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled a series of quotes from Chapters 24-29. These chapters will be covered in her February 2024 session.  Follow the Gaskell Society on Twitter and … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – quotes III

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To mark our new season of Knutsford discussions on Sylvia’s Lovers, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled a series of quotes from Chapters 16-23. These chapters will be covered in her January 2024 session.  Follow the Gaskell Society on Twitter and … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – quotes II

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To mark our new season of Knutsford discussions on Sylvia’s Lovers, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled a series of quotes from Chapters 8-15. These chapters will be covered in her November 2023 session.  Follow the Gaskell Society on Twitter and look … Continued

Sylvia’s Lovers – quotes I

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To mark our new season of Knutsford discussions on Sylvia’s Lovers, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled a series of quotes from Chapters 1-7. These chapters will be covered in her October 2023 session.  Follow the Gaskell Society on Twitter and … Continued

ALS Autumn Newsletter

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If you’re a member of the Gaskell Society, you’re affiliated to the Alliance of Literary Societies. Here’s their 2023 Autumn Newsletter, which we hope you’ll enjoy reading.  Contents The 2023 ALS AGM at Winchester, hosted by the Charlotte M Yonge … Continued

Helena Mathewson

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Did any of Elizabeth Gaskell’s daughters follow in their mother’s footsteps to become published writers? Dr Diane Duffy has the answer

ALSo Journal 2023

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If you’re a member of the Gaskell Society, you’re affiliated to the Alliance of Literary Societies. Here’s their 2023 Newsletter, which we hope you’ll enjoy reading.  Contents Editorial – R. M. Healey Casanova’s Flight from the Lead Prison – Simon … Continued

Meet our new Chair

posted in: Gaskell Society, News | 0

We’re absolutely delighted that Dr Diane Duffy was elected as our new Chair  at our Annual General Meeting in April.  Read more about her and her plans for the Gaskell Society. 

Wives and Daughters quotes VI

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We now visit Chapters 40-49 in our continuing our series of quotes from Wives and Daughters, compiled by Dr Diane Duffy. These chapters will be covered in her March 2023 meeting and you can read her discussion Points to Ponder … Continued

Not Only, But ALSo

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For many years now, the Gaskell Society has been a member of the Alliance of Literary Societies (ALS). Please find a link to their Autumn 2022 newsletter in which there’s an introduction to Charlotte M. Yonge, news of the Julie … Continued

Wives and Daughters quotes V

posted in: Knutsford, Literature | 0

We now visit Chapters 40-50 in our continuing series of quotes from Wives and Daughters, compiled by Dr Diane Duffy. These chapters will be covered in her March 2023 meeting and you can read her discussion Points to Ponder at … Continued

Wives and Daughters quotes IV

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We now visit Chapters 31-40 in our continuing our series of quotes from Wives and Daughters, compiled by Dr Diane Duffy. These chapters will be covered in her February 2023 meeting and you can read her discussion Points to Ponder … Continued

Wives and Daughters quotes III

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We now visit Chapters 21-30 in our continuing our series of quotes from Wives and Daughters, compiled by Dr Diane Duffy. These chapters will be covered in her January 2023 meeting and you can read her discussion Points to Ponder … Continued

Wives and Daughters quotes II

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Continuing our series of quotes from Wives and Daughters, compiled by Dr Diane Duffy, we now have chapters 11-20, covered in her November meeting. You can read her discussion Points to Ponder at the November meeting page.  Follow the Gaskell Society … Continued

Wives and Daughters quotes I

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To complement our Knutsford meetings, Dr Diane Duffy has compiled quotes from this season’s featured novel, Wives and Daughters. Her October meeting covers chapters 1-10, so here’s her selection from those chapters. You can read her discussion Points to Ponder at the … Continued

A Visit to the Parsonage

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Dr Diane Duffy heads across  the Pennines to visit a very special library. On 15th July 2022 I visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth. The visit had been planned back in June after a visit from Anne Spiers, a volunteer … Continued

Gaskell on Demand!

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The BBC is offering a few wonderful Gaskell treats to UK viewers and listeners at the moment, with works featured in TV cultural documentaries, plus readings and dramatisations on the radio. Watch and listen online or search for them on the BBC Iplayer … Continued

The Gaskells in Wales

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To celebrate our forthcoming Conference in Caernarfon, North Wales, Dr Diane Duffy has revisited the works and letters of Elizabeth and her family to learn more about their links with Wales. 

Dudley Green

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A tribute to author, scholar and life member of the Gaskell Society, the late Dudley Green. A Thanksgiving for his life will be held on 16 March 2022, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

North and South Season

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Join Elizabeth Gaskell’s House for its online North and South Season Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is opening 2022 with a North and South season to explore one of Elizabeth Gaskell’s most famous and much loved novels.  Bringing the nineteenth century world … Continued

‘This Land of Song’ – part 1

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Gaskell and the Perception  of Wales in Eighteenth and Nineteenth -century Writing During our study session in November 2020, a number of ideas were aired and questions asked about the use of Wales in Gaskell’s ‘The Well of Pen Morfa’ … Continued

A Bookshelf Odyssey

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a reader in possession of a good book, must be in want of another… So says Art Kilmer, Gaskell Society member and the man behind the Bookshelf Odyssey Podcast series. Art talks books, … Continued

The Gaskell Memorial Service

posted in: History, Knutsford | 0

Every year, on a Sunday, close to what would have been Elizabeth Gaskell’s birthday, Gaskell Society members assemble at Brook Street Chapel in Knutsford. We lay flowers on Elizabeth’s grave and on that of our much-missed Secretary and Founder member, … Continued

The Portico Sadie Massey Awards

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We’re thrilled to learn that Elizabeth Gaskell is inspiring a new generation of readers and writers! Now in their sixth year, the prestigious Portico Sadie Massey Awards, organised by The Portico Library in Manchester, continue to nurture young, writing talent … Continued

Christmas with the Gaskells

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With Christmas only weeks away, Dr Diane Duffy looks at how Elizabeth Gaskell prepared for and celebrated Christmas through the years. Despite the fact that Unitarians did not recognise the divinity of Christ, Christmas as a time of peace, love … Continued

Marriage and Family Life

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Diane Duffy continues her investigation into the lives and families of William Gaskell’s parents. See also Margaret Gaskell and Wiliam Gaskell Senior. The marriage between William and Margaret took place in 1803, two years before the birth of their first child, … Continued

William Gaskell Senior 1777-1819

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Diane Duffy continues her investigation into the lives and families of William Gaskell’s parents. See also Margaret Gaskell. The Gaskell family had originated in Upholland where the records go back to the beginning of the seventeenth century. Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel … Continued

Lockdown Reads – Part 2

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Again, I hope that everyone is keeping safe, well and entertained. Gaskell Society members have been sharing their current and favourite lockdown reads and a few recommendations for great telly (for those of you in the UK). If you’re in search … Continued

The Women of Cranford – Part 1

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For April’s ‘This Month in Writing’ I have chosen to discuss Cranford as two episodes of the story were published in Household Words in April 1852 and April 1853. These were ‘Visiting at Cranford’ and ‘Stopped payment at Cranford’.  However, … Continued

This Month in Writing – November

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‘The Well of Pen – Morfa’, November 1850 In the autumn of 1850, the year that Elizabeth Gaskell and her family took up residence at 42, Plymouth Grove, Charles Dickens published the second of Gaskell’s contributions to Household Words-‘The Well of … Continued

Cousin Phillis

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Gaskell’s last novella, Cousin Phillis, was published in The Cornhill Magazine in 1863, only two years before she died.  In this story she returns to her beloved Knutsford, now named Eltham, and her grandfather’s farm at Sandlebridge, renamed Heathbridge.  Gaskell’s … Continued

Gaskell Service 2019

posted in: Knutsford | 0

Every year, on a Sunday close to what would have been Elizabeth Gaskell’s birthday, we head to Brook Street Chapel in Knutsford to lay flowers on the Gaskell family grave and on the grave of Joan Leach, the Gaskell Society … Continued

The Old Nurse’s Story

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‘The Old Nurse’s Story’ can be found in collections of Gothic stories, ghost stories and tales of the macabre, something which might seem odd for a woman who was the wife of a Unitarian minister and, as a Unitarian, a … Continued

Women in Science

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The Gaskell Society recently received a question via Twitter concerning connections between Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters) and Eleanor Omerod, an entomologist. Omerod was born in Gloucestershire in 1828, moving to Torquay, then Isleworth and finally St Albans where she … Continued

Confessions of a Nervous Chair….

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It’s hard to imagine a more nerve-wracking scenario than Newish Chairwoman organising and chairing her first conference for such a well-respected literary society as the Gaskell Society. NOT helped by a history of well-organised, enjoyable, academically stimulating previous conferences stretching … Continued

A celebration – and a secret!

posted in: Manchester, Meetings | 0

On 31st May 2019, the Gaskell Society held a joint celebration at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in Manchester.  Members of the Gaskell Society committee joined with past and present editors of the Gaskell Journal to launch the long-awaited Index of the first thirty … Continued

The Elizabeth Gaskell Train

posted in: Manchester | 0

From the Northern Rail website A train, named after Elizabeth Gaskell, was unveiled at Manchester’s Piccadilly Station on 28 February 2014. A ceremony, organised in conjunction with Mid-Cheshire Community Rail Partnership, saw Northern’s Managing Director, Alex Hynes and George Osborne MP unveil the … Continued