Alan Shelston was Senior lecturer in English Literature at the University of Manchester, specialising in nineenth century English and American literature, until his retirement in 2002. He is an Honorary fellow of the John Rylands Library, Manchester, and a member of the Centro Universitario di Studi Vittoriani e Edoardiani,University of Chieti-Pescara, and has frequently contributed to conference programmes there. He is interested in all aspects of nineteenth century literature, having written extensively on the work of Elizabeth Gaskell, and on Thomas Carlyle, Dickens, George Eliot and Henry James.
