Post writer details how Brontë was celebrity biography victim

Her friend and fellow writer Elizabeth Gaskell was determined to tell her story to the world after Charlotte died. But, says Yorkshire Post features editor, Sarah Freeman, while The Life of Charlotte Brontë has become something of a ‘bible’ for fans, it doesn’t give the full picture.

“It painted her as a quiet, mousy curate’s daughter,” Mrs Freeman told the audience at yesterday’s Yorkshire Post Literary Lunch, where she was talking about her own first book, Brontë in Love. “The reality was very different.

“Although she spent her life writing about romance and said marriages of convenience were a waste of time, when she walked down the aisle it was to a man she didn’t love. I felt there was something new to say.”

Also speaking at the lunch, at Pavilions of Harrogate, was acclaimed Yorkshire historian Ian Dewhirst whose book Nah Then is a collection of Yorkshire dialect quotations gathered from 19th century almanacs. “Most were edited by men so there are a lot of sayings about women and marriage,” he said. “Like: ‘A wife is a great comfort in all the troubles that a bachelor never has.’”

Documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Mark Macauley spoke about his debut novel, The House of Slamming Doors, a tale centred on 13-year-old Justin Montague, heir to a rural estate that begins with the election of President Kennedy and ends on the day of his death in 1963.

“Everyone can remember where they were when JFK was shot, especially in Ireland,” said Mr Macauley.

“Everywhere had two pictures on the wall – one of the Pope and one of JFK. Not because he was an Irish president, but because he was the first Irish Catholic president. It meant a lot.”