ELIZABETH AND RUTH (PB)

Manchester, 1849. Elizabeth Gaskell, newly famous author of Mary Barton, visits a young Irish prostitute in Manchester's New Bailey prison. The girl is about to be discharged onto the Manchester streets, where her old life of poverty and violence awaits her. Elizabeth is determined to help her and writes to Charles Dickens for advice. Based on the real correspondence between Gaskell and Dickens, this historical fiction tells a story of prejudice, suppression and hypocrisy, and the background to Elizabeth’s controversial novel: Ruth.