He came up straight to her father, whose hands he took and wrung without a word - holding them in his for a minute or two, during which time his face, his eyes, his look, told of more sympathy than could be put into words.

Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society including the very poor and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell née Stevenson (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865) often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era.