Mary Eliza Root Prize

In memory of his Great-Great-Grandmother, who died in a Hoxton workhouse, Professor John Spiers generously gifted VPFA an annual £100 for five years (2017–2022). With this money, VPFA has sponsored one of our members annually to conduct research at Gladstone’s Library. 

The VPFA is pleased to be able to carry on this prize in collaboration with Gladstone’s Library, funding £150 to cover two nights’ accommodation. From 2026 we are also able to offer up to £150 for travel to and from Gladstone’s Library. 

Gladstone’s Library is situated in the beautiful and serene village of Hawarden, North Wales, and is Britain’s only residential Prime Ministerial Library. Gladstone, born in 1809, and Prime Minister on four separate occasions, began building his library in 1889. He designed it specifically as a place of study and solitude for scholars, so they could access his substantial book collection, and this remains its primary purpose today.

To further Gladstone’s end, and to celebrate the fantastic work on Victorian popular fiction being generated at the VPFA, the ‘Mary Eliza Root Prize’ offers the winning scholar two nights’ accommodation (complete with breakfast and dinner) for up to three days’ research at Gladstone’s Library. From 2026, we are also offering up to £150 towards UK travel expenses (either by mileage or standard class train tickets).

Conditions of the Prize:

  • The winner must be a fully paid-up member of the Victorian Popular Fiction Association (join the VPFA here).
  • In order to fulfil Gladstone’s Library’s accommodation requirements, the prize must be claimed between December – February of the same year as the application round.
  • The winner will be expected to write a c.1000 word blog post on their research experience for the VPFA within a month of the research being completed. 
  • Any published works based on research undertaken during or resulting from the ‘Mary Eliza Root Prize’ must acknowledge the prize.

Application Process:

Applications should be sent by email to vpfainfo@gmail.com citing the ‘Mary Eliza Root Prize’ in the subject box. Applications should include:

  • A brief CV.
  • A 300 word cover letter detailing how a stay at Gladstone’s Library will aid your own research and contribute to furthering the field of Victorian popular fiction and culture. Please note that the strongest applications will include reference to the resources available at the Library and an indication of how they will benefit the applicant’s research.

Winner of the 2026 Prize: Jessica Cox, Brunel University London

Jessica Cox is currently researching her next project provisionally entitled The Dodging Time: (Peri-)Menopause in Nineteenth-Century Britain – a sequel to her previous book, Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain (The History Press, 2023). Through an examination of life-writing, medical and advice literature, asylum records, and popular fiction, this work will shed light on this important, neglected topic. It will explore women’s own experiences of (peri-) menopause in nineteenth-century Britain, as well as medical responses to this ‘critical time’ and cultural depictions of women of ‘a certain age’. 
 
At Gladstone’s Library she will examine letters written by Catherine Gladstone in the 1850s and 1860s, with a view to documenting her experiences of ageing and health. Research into women’s lived experiences of (peri-)menopause will enable me to offer comparisons with cultural representations of women at this age in a range of Victorian popular fiction.

To see previous winners, and read their reports of their stay at Gladstone’s Library, click here