We’re delighted to welcome guest speaker Jackie Tucker to our first Cross Street Chapel Manchester meeting in oooh… absolutely ages! We hope you’ll be able to join us.

In 1851 Elizabeth Gaskell wrote to Eliza Fox that she had ‘turned farmer’- a rather surprising remark for a novelist known for her writing on industrial life and living in a suburban villa on the outskirts of Manchester!

This talk will explore what she meant by ‘turning farmer’, and what might have prompted her to adopt this course. We will dip into her letters and her fiction, engage with her sense of humour, and consider what was in vogue at the time. We will see her ‘farming’ in the context of her family, friends and acquaintances, and refer to the work of other writers

Jackie Tucker is a Gaskell Society committee member and volunteer at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House.  She gives talks on the Gaskells’ garden and related topics, from the viewpoint of a practical volunteer gardener. As well as the horticultural, Jackie’s interests include history, English literature and art.

Doors open at 1pm – the chapel will be selling tea and coffee and you are most welcome to bring your packed lunch!

The talk begins at 1.30pm.