Living Like a Brontë

Journalist and broadcaster Martha Kearney, columnist and author Lucy Mangan and novelist Helen Oyeyemi travel to Haworth Parsonage, the home of the Brontë sisters, to discover the stories behind their classic novels, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey. Just two years before these works were published prospects for the three unmarried sisters were looking bleak. Their brother was battling an alcohol-fuelled breakdown, Charlotte was suffering depression and their father was going blind. But by 1847 they were literary stars. How was it that Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë manages such a sudden and miraculous creative achievement, in the face of adversity? With help from a range of experts, each presenter will explore one of the Brontës in fascinating detail. By re-living the sisters’ daily routines, visiting the key places in their world and immersing themselves in their letters and diaries, and through the sisters’ interactions with each they’ll discover what it was that served as their sources of inspiration.