The story of the Brontës, a tragic and brilliant family, is one of the most fascinating tales in all of English literature. Charlotte, Emily and Anne grew up in a bleak Yorkshire parsonage, expecting to become governesses. Instead, they wrote 7 extraordinary novels – passionate, violent, feminist and autobiographical – which they published anonymously. Only Charlotte enjoyed literary fame, as Emily and Anne died soon after publishing their works.

After marrying in 1812, the Reverend Patrick Brontë and his wife Maria settled in Thornton, where their six children were born in the first eight years of marriage. First were daughters Maria and Elizabeth. Charlotte, the third child in the family, was born in 1816. After her came Branwell, the only boy, then Emily, and Anne, the youngest, was born in 1820.

By 1824, their two eldest children had died, and the family was living at The Parsonage, a stone house at the edge of the moors at Haworth. Here the girls sewed their samplers, invented characters, and started to write in tiny books which they stitched together, creating stories of dashing heroes, dastardly villains and lovely heroines. These amazing little works have survived and are known as the Brontë Juvenilia. You can see some of them in the Haworth Parsonage Museum today.