This chronology sets Elizabeth Gaskell in her historical, social and literary contexts. It focuses on her career as a writer but also underlines her interactive roles as wife, mother, practical and tolerant Christian, radical sympathizer. Graham Handley discusses her early life, her marriage, the beginnings of her writing, the years of achievement, her social, humanitarian concerns, love of travel and its influence, with the balance of domesticity and creativity which is the key to her character.