Today is the anniversary of the death of Elizabeth Gaskell. Sometimes simply referred to as Mrs Gaskell, Elizabeth was an English novelist and short story writer in the Victorian era.

Although born in London, she spent much of her childhood in Cheshire, where she lived with her aunt Hannah Lumb in Knutsford, a town she would later immortalise as Cranford in her novel of 1853. Her time here was to be the source for so much of her highly accurate portrayal of mid-nineteenth century Britain, and as such are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

She married William Gaskell, a lecturer at Manchester University and a Unitarian Minister and they embarked on a life of social and educational work and the raising of their large family.

Elizabeth Gaskell's novel My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural Northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham. The interruption of scenes from the French Revolution adds a crackling of horror to this quintessentially British of downfalls.

Read by the legendary british actress Suzanna York with 'husky sensitivity', this unabridged audio book is perfect for long cold winter nights!