Elizabeth Gaskell

In the title story of this collection, Mr Holdsworth, a railway engineer, falls in love with Phillis Holman and she with him, although they do not declare their feelings. He is sent to Canada but confides to his friend, Paul Manning, that he intends to return to England and ask for her hand in marriage.

This is a series of (mainly humorous) vignettes detailing the everyday lives of the inhabitants of a 19th century village.

A collection of BBC Radio dramatisations of Elizabeth Gaskell's well loved novels - plus bonus material

Elizabeth Gaskell was one of Victorian England's pre-eminent female novelists. Admired by Charles Dickens, who described her as his 'dear Scheherazade', she mingled storytelling and social realism to superb effect in her highly acclaimed fiction.

This comprehensive collection comprises dramas and readings of her finest works and some lesser-known pieces. Among the adaptations are her final, unfinished novel Wives and Daughters, her debut novel Mary Barton and her only historical novel, Sylvia's Lovers; as well as the 1851 novella Mr Harrison's Confession (a prequel to Cranford), and her great novel of industrialisation, female independence and identity, North and South. All feature star casts including Emerald O'Hanrahan, Sue Johnston, Jodie Comer, Emily Mortimer, Rod Hudd, David Threlfall, Julian Rhind-Tutt,

Also included are readings of Mrs Gaskell's chilling supernatural tale 'The Old Nurse's Story', her much-loved novel of life in a small town and its female inhabitants, Cranford, and her festive short story 'Christmas Storms and Sunshine'.

Based on true events, Stephen Wakelam's detective drama Death at the Bed End, starring Kenneth Cranham, explores the controversy surrounding Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë and the libel threat that followed its publication also included is Mrs Gaskell: Portrait of a Victorian Novelist by Barry Campbell, which is inspired by the author's letters. And in Great Lives: Elizabeth Gaskell, historian Amanda Vickery and biographer Jenny Uglow discuss Mrs Gaskell's life, work and achievements with presenter Francine Stock.

Credits
Written by Elizabeth Gaskell
Written by Stephen Wakelam

Mary Barton
Dramatised by Lavinia Murray. Produced and directed by Claire Grove and Tracey Neale
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 15 September-9 November 2001

Mr Harrison's Confessions
Adapted for radio by Jeremy Front. Produced and directed by Sally Avens.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 June 1988

The Old Nurse's Story
Produced by Kay Patrick. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 24-25 May 1984

North and South
Dramatised by Charlotte Keatley.
Directed by Michael Fox.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 June 1997

Sylvia's Lovers
Dramatised by Ellen Dryden. Produced and directed by Pauline Harris.
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6-13 March 2016

Wives and Daughters
Dramatised by Theresa Heskins. Produced and directed by Peter Leslie Wild
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 November-10 December 2010

Cranford
Produced by Julian Wilkinson. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 1 November 2019

Christmas Storms and Sunshine
Produced by Simon Richardson. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 21 December 2018

Death at the Bed End
Written by Stephen Wakelam. Directed by Janet Whitaker. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4 December 2004

Mrs Gaskell: Portrait of a Victorian Novelist
Written by Barry Campbell based on "Elizabeth Gaskell: A Biography" by Winifred Gérin. Permission granted by Oxford Publishing Ltd (Academic), Oxford University Press (via PLSclear).Produced by James Runcie. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 21 August 1983

Great Lives: Mrs Gaskell
Presented by Francine Stock, Amanda Vickery and Jenny Uglow. First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 20 May 2005

Elizabeth Gaskell's chilling Gothic tales blend the real and the supernatural to eerie, compelling effect. 'Disappearances', inspired by local legends of mysterious vanishings, mixes gossip and fact; 'Lois the Witch', a novella based on an account of the Salem witch hunts, shows how sexual desire and jealousy lead to hysteria; while in 'The Old Nurse's Story' a mysterious child roams the freezing Northumberland moors. Whether darkly surreal, such as 'The Poor Clare', where an evil doppelganger is formed by a woman's bitter curse, or mischievous like 'Curious, if True', a playful reworking of fairy tales, all the stories in this volume form a stark contrast to the social realism of Gaskell's novels, revealing a darker and more unsettling style of writing.

A portrait of life in Manchester in the Hungry Forties of the 19th century, and also a grippingly told love story and murder plot enlivened by the author's genius for making her characters so individually human.

Forced to move from the rural tranquillity of southern England to the northern mill town of Milton, Margaret Hale takes an instant dislike to the dirt and noise of her new home and its inhabitants - even the handsome cotton mill owner, John Thornton. But as she begins to understand the nature of the poverty, events conspire to throw her and Thornton together. Amidst the chaos of industrial unrest, they must learn to overcome the prejudices of class and admit their feelings for one another.

When 19-year-old Margaret Hale is uprooted from her home in the rural South of England and transplanted to the industrial North, she struggles to adapt. Smoky, grimy and ugly, Milton seems like a different country - one run by men with very different beliefs to her own, like charismatic mill owner John Thornton. A self-made entrepreneur and pragmatic capitalist, Thornton represents everything the idealistic Margaret hates. Witnessing the conditions at his mill, her social conscience is awakened, and she clashes fiercely with him over his ruthless treatment of the workers. But when a strike turns into a violent riot, and Thornton is put in danger, Margaret is forced to face up to her conflicted feelings. Can the duo overcome their ideological differences and find love?

It is the 1790s in the coastal town of Monkshaven. Sylvia Robson's lover, Charley, is carried off by a press-gang, but writes to her, promising constancy. Unfortunately, the letter is entrusted to Sylvia's cousin, Philip, who keeps it from her in order to marry her himself. Years later Charley returns, and Philip's treachery is discovered, with disastrous consequences.