Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has announced the three young writers in residence, who will be spending time immersing themselves in Elizabeth’s world and responding to her legacy in their words. Georgia Affonso, Princess Arinola Adegbite and Guruleen Kahlo, who are all connected to Manchester through their life, education and creative work, will be exploring not only Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) as the writer of North and South, Cranford and Mary Barton, but as a woman whose life was led by a sense of social justice.

The project, in collaboration with The Writing Squad and Manchester City of Literature, celebrates 10 years since the restoration of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, which once lay abandoned, but now proudly takes its place as Manchester’s only literary house. The restoration of Elizabeth’s Grade II* listed Georgian villa was made possible by a community campaign that led to funding by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, who are now supporting this project.

All the young writers have in common, apart from being members of The Writing Squad, that Elizabeth Gaskell is not a writer known to them, so discovering her world has immediately opened up exciting possibilities. They are at the beginning of their writing careers, and yet are already inspiring people not that much younger than themselves.

Georgia Affonso is a script-writer who has seen her work commissioned by BBC Radio 4, is co-director of No Door Theatre and has been selected for both the BBC Drama Room and as part of the Waterloo Road Shadow Scheme. She arrives at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House with not so positive memories of visiting historical properties as a child and is enthused by the challenge this opportunity presents to test her own preconceptions. “I have already started finding points of connection that I’m excited about”, says Georgia. And she has reflected that, not unlike Elizabeth’s own experiences, “Social inequality is something I encounter throughout my work, and writing is one of the ways I try to figure out how we fix it.”

Princess Arinola Adegbite is a multi-award-winning poet, filmmaker, musician and writer. She’s seen her poetry bridge the gap between different cultural spheres that range from Chanel’s Métiers d’art Exhibition to University of Cambridge and will be taking these accomplishments, together with those gained through running community educational workshops, to create new stories within the walls of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. “I am intrigued by the possibility of crafting pieces that embody the physical artefacts of the house with themes of female authorship and social reform, perhaps exploring how Elizabeth’s domestic space both confined and liberated her creative voice,” says Princess.

The idea of looking at history from a different perspective is something that resonates strongly with writer Guruleen Kahlo. She’s seen the impact this can have in projects for English Heritage and Writing the Archive, as well as during an internship for the Long 19th Century Network in which she helped to run a Decolonising the 19th Century event. “With this came a much needed reminder,” says Guruleen, “that much of history was written by affluent white men – it is necessary to look further and to amplify a variety of voices.” This is one of the reasons that she is both fascinated by Elizabeth’s legacy and also struck by how many of the issues she focused on still ring true today.

As the writers are learning, appearances can be deceptive, and there are many fascinating layers to Elizabeth’s life that go far beyond the façade of the Victorian writer. Elizabeth’s role as a social reformer, her belief in the power of writing to bring about change and her depiction of the role of women in society provide rich material for creative interpretation.

Elizabeth participated in Manchester as a thriving industrial city and society, but also saw the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that this imposed on the working class. In her own time she was said to have ‘pricked the conscience of the nation’ and upon her death she was described as ‘one of the greatest female novelists of all time’, but never achieved the status of contemporaries and friends such as Charles Dickens. Why this was, and Elizabeth’s experiences as a female writer, is something that the writers will be addressing.

Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd, Director of Elizabeth Gaskell’s House, says, “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Georgia, Princess and Guruleen as our writers in residence. Their work has captured all our imaginations and we cannot wait to see how they use their words and voices to illuminate Elizabeth’s legacy as they see it today. Elizabeth used her writing to record what she saw and to try and affect change, which makes her much more of an inspiring radical than her image can sometimes convey.”

In the coming months Georgia, Princess and Guruleen will be spending time at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House and will be learning about her via her manuscripts, first editions and letters held at other Manchester institutions. They are all members of The Writing Squad, from whom they will receive support throughout the project. Once their works are complete they will feature as part of an exhibition at Manchester Central Library that will take place during Manchester’s Festival of Libraries (4 to 8 June 2025), which is organised by Manchester City of Literature, before opening at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House in July.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is open every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 11:00am to 4:30pm. Entry is £8.50 for adults and free for children under 16, when accompanied by an adult. Tickets are valid for 12 months from purchase and can be pre-booked via www.ticketsource.co.uk/elizabeth-gaskell-house. For further information visit www.elizabethgaskellhouse.co.uk