Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, known as Mrs Gaskell, was one of the great Victorian novelists and biographers. Born in 1810, she is celebrated for novels including North and South, Cranford, Wives and Daughters and Mary Barton, which combined social realism with rich characterisation and gentle wit. Cousin Phillis is a beautiful and tender novella set in the English countryside, telling the story of a young woman living in a rural parsonage whose quiet world is transformed by the arrival of a charismatic railway engineer. The novella is prized for its lyrical evocation of pastoral England and its delicate handling of first love and heartbreak. Gaskell was also the first biographer of Charlotte Brontë, and her Life of Charlotte Brontë remains an important literary document. Her writing captures the social changes, class tensions and human warmth of Victorian England with compassion and artistic skill. Her audiobooks and books continue to be read and loved by readers who value the richness of Victorian fiction. She died in 1865.