Charlotte Bronte

by Kate Hubbard

Published 31 August 2001
Of the famous Bronte siblings, Charlotte, the eldest, was the survivor. At the age of five, she was packed off to boarding school - a place later featured as the sadistic Lockwood institution in her novel "Jane Eyre" - where the regime was so harsh it killed two of her sisters. In 1845, after a spell as governess and a disastrous love affair in France, Charlotte returned home to Haworth,Yorkshire, to pursue her literary ambitions. This is the story of a rector's daughter who triumphed over unrequited love and family tragedy to take her place as one of the world's most popular writers.