Description
Elizabeth Gaskell may have been one of the first to write a ‘picket-line’ romance, in her much-loved classic North and South, but she was certainly not the last. To mark the centenary year of the ‘General Strike’ we uncovered another novel which combines romance with industrial relations – Clash by another iconic Manchester woman: Ellen Wilkinson, one of the first women Labour MPs (Member of Parliament) and best known for leading the ‘Jarrow March’ of the unemployed in 1936.
In 1926 Ellen Wilkinson spoke at rallies and meetings in support of the ‘General Strike’, when workers walked out in support of striking miners.
Three years after the strike, she published Clash, a semi-autobiographical novel in which a young woman searches for romantic and personal fulfillment in the midst of economic and social unrest.
How did these two trailblazing women write about strikes? Are there any similarities between Clash and Elizabeth Gaskell’s Victorian novel? What do these two women have to say about changing attitudes to strikers in literature? Professor Michael Sanders of The University of Manchester explains all.
‘It was absolutely superb – very informative and delivered with authority.’ Visitor to previous online event
Recorded May 2026.
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Celebrating the life and literature of Elizabeth Gaskell, Manchester’s most famous Victorian writer. A restored Victorian middle-class house in the heart of a UNESCO City of Literature.
House, Garden and Tea Room open every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday 11am-4.30pm (last entry 3pm). Second-hand books also on sale from the House.
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