Celebrating the life and work of Elizabeth Gaskell
‘The Secret Life of Edward Higgins: The Squire’s Story Published in the Extra Christmas Number of Dickens’ Household Words, December 1853 After looking at some interesting Welsh locations in ‘The Well of Pen Morfa’, I am returning to England for … Continued
In Warrington’s Cairo Street Unitarian Chapel, close to the steps leading to the Priestley Gates, is an obelisk commemorating the lives of William Robson (1812-1902), his wife Anna, and their two sons, William Holbrook and Edwin. Anna is recorded as … Continued
‘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
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
Mary Barton – the book that divided a nation 1848 was the year of revolution. A series of political upheavals took place across Europe. Their aim was ostensibly to remove the old monarchical structures and create independent nation-states. In February, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels … Continued
We all think of Elizabeth Gaskell as a brilliantly entertaining storyteller, whom Dickens addressed as ‘my dear Scheherazade’. But how many of us know her works of non-fiction? One interesting – and I might even dare to say obscure – … Continued
Elizabeth Gaskell, the wife of a Unitarian minister of religion in Manchester, shared her husband’s interest in literature: they published some jointly written verses in 1837. Elizabeth became a best-selling novelist almost by chance. Grieved by the death of her baby … Continued