This year’s Joan Leach Memorial Lecture was given by Michelle D.  Ravenscroft (Manchester Metropolitan University.

Manchester-born Isabella Banks is best known for her popular novel, The Manchester Man (1876). Set against the backdrop of the manufacturing industry during the first decades of the nineteenth century, the story visits locations across the city, and beyond. Manchester also features in Banks’s first work of fiction, God’s Providence House (1865), and her later novel, Forbidden to Wed (1885), both of which are mainly set in Chester, a city the author learned about from tales related to her during childhood. Through these works, and more, this talk will explore key locations in both cities, that inspired her writing, and will consider how place has helped to create memorable stories enjoyed by readers for over 150 years.