Cranford For Beginners Online Talk with Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

Cranford For Beginners Online Talk with Elizabeth Gaskell's House, online, 27 January 2021, from £4 - Book now

Join Libby Tempest, Chair of The Gaskell Society, for an introduction to the novel Cranford, a well-loved classic of Victorian literature. Published in 1853 – three years after Elizabeth Gaskell and her husband moved to their villa in Plymouth Grove – the novel is set in Cheshire in the early 1840s. The story follows the lives of the single and widowed middle-class female inhabitants of fictional village Cranford, with plenty of intrigue and gossip – enough to fuel an award-winning BBC television series starring the likes of Dame Judi Dench and Imelda Staunton.

A great opportunity to help put into context the new Cranford exhibition that is due to open at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in 2021.

Cranford is one of Elizabeth Gaskell’s most popular novels, and this online talk is the perfect way to discover or rediscover the Victorian classic. It’s also a great opportunity to help put into context the new Cranford exhibition that is due to open at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in 2021, when you’ll be able to explore everything about the book, its inspiration and its legacy.

You’ll be in good hands as Libby Tempest is quite the Gaskell expert being Chair of The Gaskell Society – come armed with questions for her; the online talk will last around 45 minutes, followed by a short Q&A session afterwards. United in their admiration of Elizabeth Gaskell’s forward-thinking spirit and work, members of The Gaskell Society are devoted to the study and appreciation of the life and oeuvre of Elizabeth Gaskell, and have been involved in the campaign to restore the House and Elizabeth’s much-loved gardens.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford is renowned for its portrayal of picture-perfect English village life, and is famously illustrated by Hugh Thomson. His iconic illustrations helped not only to bolster the picture Elizabeth Gaskell was painting through her words, it also helped to popularise the book. You can find out more about the story behind the illustrations in the online talk “Cranford’s Illustrators” with former Portico Library librarian Emma Marigliano on 3 February and in the winter’s evening talk “Chocolate-box Cranford: An idyll?” on 24 February with The Gaskell Society’s Anthony Burton.