Elizabeth Gaskell

Elizabeth Gaskell, often called Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer who worked in the Victorian era. Her novels, beginning with Mary Barton in 1848, looked closely at Victorian society and the lives of the very poor. She was best known for Cranford, North and South and Wives and Daughters, all of which the BBC adapted for television. Her only biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was controversial and helped secure the Brontë family's lasting fame.