Autumn Meeting Booking Form

10.30 am Coffee

11.00 am The Joan Leach Memorial Lecture will be given by Dr. Ingrid Hanson, taking as her title: “ God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes”: Elizabeth Gaskell, the body and the idea of peace.

Ingrid Hanson is a lecturer in English and American Studies and Creative Writing at The University of Manchester .Using extracts from Gaskell’s North and South and Ruth, where reference is made to the eyes of the characters, this lecture will consider ways in which eyes and bodies in Gaskell’s texts register tumult, disorder and disharmony, forcing people to acknowledge conflict and move towards peace- personal, social, political and religious. Drawing on the discourses of Victorian psychology and of Gaskell’s own Unitarianism, paying attention to the interactions of war, commerce and class relations in Victorian Britain, Ingrid will argue that Gaskell both contributes to and draws on contemporary debates about the meaning of peace and the means of its achievement.

12.30( approx) Buffet Lunch

2.00 pm Helen MacEwan will speak on “ Brontë and Brussels”

We are pleased to welcome the return of Helen MacEwan who spoke to us at last year’s AGM talk on Winifred Gerin, biographer of Gaskell and the Brontë siblings and again at the MLF last October. This time, turning her attention to the fact that two of Charlotte’s four novels (The Professor and Villette) and are set in Brussels and her stay there (in 1843-44) was highly significant for her life and work, Helen will talk about Charlotte’s time in Brussels, paint a picture of 19th Century Brussels and discuss the ways in which Charlotte depicted the city and Belgian society in her novels. Members may like to read the two novels beforehand.

3.30pm. Finish

For costs and method of payment – see Booking Form.   Those requiring lunch must book in advance.