University of Manchester - Special delivery from the past

Letters written by Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell have been acquired by the University of Manchester's John Rylands University Library. The correspondence, which amounts to hundreds of letters, is between Gaskell and her friend Mary Green, and Mary's daughter Isabella, and adds to the library's extensive Gaskell collection. The collection offers an insight into life in Gaskell's home town of Knutsford, Cheshire, which served as the model for Cranford in the novel of that name.