The Gaskell Society

Celebrating the life and work of Elizabeth Gaskell

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Manchester Meeting – The Restoration of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Cross Street Chapel Cross Street,, Manchester, United Kingdom

We're especially delighted to welcome our dear friend, Frank Galvin, for our December illustrated talk. Frank is a retired museum curator who worked for Stockport’s Heritage Service for 32 years: he was responsible for Stockport’s eight heritage sites and managed a team of curators, designers and technicians. His projects included the Hat Works, The Stockport […]

£5 – £6

Online Talk: Christmas Literature

online

'I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year…' A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is the best known and most loved of all Christmas novels with its tale of Scrooge’s seasonal redemption through Christmas Past, Present and Future. But as we step into Christmas, the Gaskell Society's Anthony […]

£5

Second-Hand Book Sale

Elizabeth Gaskell's House 84 Plymouth Grove,, Manchester, United Kingdom

The monthly second-hand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a must-visit for book lovers. Two rooms packed full of books of all genres, including contemporary fiction, art, gardening, photography, classics, OS maps, biographies, history, cookery, social history and children’s! With new stock every month there are treasures to be found. Prices start at just £1 […]

Second-Hand Book Sale

Elizabeth Gaskell's House 84 Plymouth Grove,, Manchester, United Kingdom

The monthly second-hand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a must-visit for book lovers. Two rooms packed full of books of all genres, including contemporary fiction, art, gardening, photography, classics, OS maps, biographies, history, cookery, social history and children’s! With new stock every month there are treasures to be found. Prices start at just £1 […]

New Year Lunch, 2023

Cottons Hotel and Spa Manchester Road, Knutsford, United Kingdom

We're thrilled to welcome back members and friends for our wonderfully convivial New Year lunch - a firm favourite in our society's calendar. Join us at the the Cottons Hotel, Knutsford for a three-course lunch, including coffee and after-lunch entertainment. And tickets cost less than they did in 2022! Members old and new, non-members and […]

£25 – £27

Online Talk: Mary Barton – An Introduction

online

A new season of Mary Barton events begins at Elizabeth Gaskell's House with this introduction to her first novel, Mary Barton: A Tale of Manchester Life. The story is a tale of class strife, romantic love and action adventure as Mary Barton, daughter of a trade unionist, is torn between the working-class Jem Wilson and mill […]

£5

Online Talk: Mary Barton’s Manchester

online

Back by popular demand, Dr Diane Duffy leads us on a literary journey of discovery to the places, buildings and landmarks of Manchester as featured in Elizabeth Gaskell’s first novel Mary Barton, with extracts from the text to map the way. This fascinating talk will interest anyone who wants to find out more about historical […]

£5

Knutsford Meeting – January 2023

Brook Street Chapel Adam's Hill,, Knutsford, United Kingdom

Our discussion series for 2022-23 looks at Wives and Daughters. First published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine, between August 1864 and January 1866, Wives and Daughters was unfinished when Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. This is many people's favourite Gaskell novel, which perhaps shows how her writing was getting better and better. We can […]

£5 – £6

Letters and Elizabeth Gaskell

Francis Holland School 39 Graham Terrace, London, United Kingdom

Carolyn Lambert is the Gaskell Society’s Letters Recorder, responsible for hunting down and investigating new Gaskell letters. Her talk will cover academic theories of letter-writing; letters in Gaskell’s fiction and the wit and wisdom of Elizabeth Gaskell, according to Carolyn: “one of the best letter writers of the nineteenth-century: gossipy, acerbic and endlessly entertaining” The […]

Manchester Meeting – Rooms with a View

Cross Street Chapel Cross Street,, Manchester, United Kingdom

Rooms with a View: Soft Furnishings in North and South   This talk will explore what the furniture in North and South tells us about the social world Gaskell inhabits. Dr Clara Dawson reflects on whether furniture provides us with an alternative narrative to the romance plot and the depiction of north and south, and […]

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Second-Hand Book Sale

Elizabeth Gaskell's House 84 Plymouth Grove,, Manchester, United Kingdom

The monthly second-hand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a must-visit for book lovers. Two rooms packed full of books of all genres, including contemporary fiction, art, gardening, photography, classics, OS maps, biographies, history, cookery, social history and children’s! With new stock every month there are treasures to be found. Prices start at just £1 […]

Online Valentines Talk: Mr Thornton vs Mr Darcy

online

In this lively online event we take a closer look at two of literature’s best loved heroes – Mr Thornton from Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South and Mr Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Sit back and enjoy a Valentine’s treat as we celebrate two delicious literary leading men. Discover how our heroes compare […]

£5

Online Talk: Passion and Propriety – Elizabeth Gaskell’s Fashion

online

Elizabeth Gaskell had a love of fashion, enjoying foreign styles on her travels, and a fan of beautiful shawls and patterns at home. This talk, by Margo Singer, looks at Elizabeth’s conflicting reactions to contemporary fashions in her letters and novels, as she sought to reconcile her desire for conservative dress for her daughters, and […]

£5

Knutsford Meeting – February 2023

Brook Street Chapel Adam's Hill,, Knutsford, United Kingdom

Our discussion series for 2022-23 looks at Wives and Daughters. First published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine, between August 1864 and January 1866, Wives and Daughters was unfinished when Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. This is many people's favourite Gaskell novel, which perhaps shows how her writing was getting better and better. We can […]

£5 – £6

Manchester Meeting – Elizabeth Gaskell’s Visit to Chatsworth

Cross Street Chapel Cross Street,, Manchester, United Kingdom

‘I feel more like Cinderella, than anyone else you can imagine’: Elizabeth Gaskell’s visit to Chatsworth On Saturday 12 September 1857, Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughter Meta were amongst many tourists arriving at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire with their printed admission tickets. Their tour of the house was interrupted by an invitation to stay for […]

£5 – £6

Second-Hand Book Sale

Elizabeth Gaskell's House 84 Plymouth Grove,, Manchester, United Kingdom

The monthly second-hand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a must-visit for book lovers. Two rooms packed full of books of all genres, including contemporary fiction, art, gardening, photography, classics, OS maps, biographies, history, cookery, social history and children’s! With new stock every month there are treasures to be found. Prices start at just £1 […]

Online Talk: Writing Women

online

Join Dr Diane Duffy for a special look at 19th century women writers’ experiences, starting with Elizabeth Gaskell and reflecting on the lives of giants of literature including Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot. How were their experiences different to male writers? What did the reading public think of women? How did […]

£5

Knutsford Meeting – March 2023

Brook Street Chapel Adam's Hill,, Knutsford, United Kingdom

Our discussion series for 2022-23 looks at Wives and Daughters. First published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine, between August 1864 and January 1866, Wives and Daughters was unfinished when Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. This is many people's favourite Gaskell novel, which perhaps shows how her writing was getting better and better. We can […]

£5 – £6

Second-Hand Book Sale

Elizabeth Gaskell's House 84 Plymouth Grove,, Manchester, United Kingdom

The monthly second-hand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell's House is a must-visit for book lovers. Two rooms packed full of books of all genres, including contemporary fiction, art, gardening, photography, classics, OS maps, biographies, history, cookery, social history and children’s! With new stock every month there are treasures to be found. Prices start at just £1 […]

Online Talk: Literary Heroines

online

A celebration of Mary Barton and the greatest 19th century literary heroines by women writers from Jane Austen to the Brontës. Writers like Elizabeth Gaskell question our views of Victorian women by creating characters who break the rules and challenge convention. Why are we drawn to Mary Barton and so many others? What sets them […]

£5

ALS AGM Weekend

Winchester various venues

The Alliance of Literary Societies has its AGM weekend in April (the same weekend as our own AGM on 22 April, unfortunately). The Gaskell Society is a member of the ALS, and as such, our members are invited to the event. Hosted by the Charlotte M. Yonge Fellowship,  the 2023 AGM/ALS Weekend runs from April 21st – […]

The Gaskell Society Annual General Meeting 2023

Cross Street Chapel Cross Street,, Manchester, United Kingdom

Our Annual General Meeting takes place at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester 10.00 Tea and Coffee 10.30 Annual General Meeting 11.45 The Daphne Carrick Memorial Lecture  Why Read Elizabeth Gaskell? by Elizabeth Williams Elizabeth will highlight some of her very favourite passages from Gaskell’s work and discuss how relevant she still seems to be today. […]

Knutsford Meeting – April 2023

Brook Street Chapel Adam's Hill,, Knutsford, United Kingdom

Our discussion series for 2022-23 looks at Wives and Daughters. First published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine, between August 1864 and January 1866, Wives and Daughters was unfinished when Elizabeth died suddenly in 1865. This is many people's favourite Gaskell novel, which perhaps shows how her writing was getting better and better. We can […]

£5 – £6

Domestic Mental Cruelty in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Works

Francis Holland School 39 Graham Terrace, London, United Kingdom

A talk by Kathleen Gentle Kathleen Gentle, a postgraduate researcher at Anglia Ruskin University, examines  the depiction of psychological abuse in familial and spousal relationships and focusing on Sylvia’s Lovers and the short stories “Morton Hall” and “The Grey Woman”. We are very grateful to Kathleen for stepping in at short notice to replace our […]

Of Song and Speech: Music and Words from Industrial Lancashire

The John Rylands Research Institute and Library 150 Deansgate, Manchester, United Kingdom

Gaskell Society member and good friend, Professor Michael Sanders,  in conversation exploring the defining literary and cultural pioneers of the era. He’ll be joined by folk singer, Jen Reid, who sings Lancashire dialect songs. 5:30-6:10: Collections Encounter Drop in at the Rylands and discover objects and books connected to our exhibition Workers' Playtime: Culture and […]

Free