Gaskell Society Conference 2019 (1)

I'm never quite sure how the GS Conference will go. Sometimes its just a huge pleasure from beginning to end; sometimes, more usually in fact, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Part of the problem with organising something like this is finding a venue with enough space for the delegates to stay, which also has public rooms for talks,  coffee breaks and dining,  at a reasonable price and accessible by public transport as well as by car. I gather from various committee members that this was perhaps their greatest headache of all this time around. They had wanted to go to Wales, so that the Conference could be built around the novel Ruth, but there was nothing available that didn't charge sky high pries. They next considered the Peak District but there was nothing large enough. So we ended up in South Yorkshire, between Sheffield and Barnsley, at the Tankersley Manor Hotel. 

Quite often in the past I have found that either the accommodation for the Conference was good but the food was not, or vice versa, but the TMH managed both. True, the rooms were a bit tired when you looked closely but they were a good size, the beds were extremely comfortable and there was plenty of hot water whatever the time of day. The food was beautiful and varied and served to our large group on time every time. In fact the whole thing worked like clockwork. (except for breakfast on Day 1 for me. I took advantage of the fact that for  small service charge I could have breakfast in my room and it didn't arrive on the first day without a prompt. But the next two days it arrived on time, and for me this service is worth every penny as I find it stressful to have breakfast in the company of people who are just a step up from strangers.) So almost full marks to the TM; the only slight fly in the ointment was that the reception staff tended to the offhand; they weren't rude or unpleasant, just generally not interested in the guests.

It being the 200th anniversary of Peterloo (and hotels in North Wales being too expensive) the novel the conference was based on was Mary Barton. Not a favourite with me, but the talks we had were generally very interesting; there was one on Peterloo itself, one on working class political activity,   and another on workers living conditions, in the Manchester of the time, and one on Methodism in the novels. Plus a round up of Peak District literary connections. Since off my own bat I could only come up with Pemberley from 'Pride and Prejudice' for that subject it was nice to discover they were a bit more widespread than that. We had a literary quiz after dinner on  Saturday which was  great fun - apart from the Picture Round which was impossible. 

I met some old acquaintances and made some new ones and all in all it was very enjoyable and I shall definitely go again in 2021. And there were two trips out, of which more anon. With pictures.