North and South

North and South is a novel published in 1854 by Elizabeth Gaskell. The book has been dramatised a few times in the past but I stumbled upon this radio version and listened to the whole thing, three episodes at an hour each, in a single sitting (whilst decorating the back kitchen/boiler room). The book works very well as radio drama, exploring class and morality in 19th century Britain. Set in a fictional northern town, Elizabeth Gaskell lived in Manchester, the book documented the tensions between mill owners, workers and the changing economic dynamic of the time. A story for our times, but with a difference in that resolution is found through finding common ground with both workers and masters compromising to find some sort of acceptable peace. A contrast with the Truss government embarking on a full-on class war.

There is a certain cornyness in the story, and an inevitability about the ending, but there are poignant moments and a well described contrast between poverty and affluence, privilege and the grinding, dangerous work in the mills. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001brj0