“I am just going to write because I cannot help it.”



                                                         Charlotte Brontë



‘October 19th, 1846. Kate felt as though the date was etched upon her heart forever.’



When Mother and her beloved twin brothers are taken by the Haworth ‘miasma’, Father drowns his sorrow in drink and younger sister Lizzie begins to run wild. It is left to Kate at only fifteen to keep her family out of the dreaded workhouse.



She is offered a cleaning job at the Parsonage, home of Reverend Brontë, his son Branwell and the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Anne, and Emily.



Kate harbours a secret; to write for the famous Blackwood Magazine, but poverty and gender are against her. Luke, a farmer’s son, has dreams of being an engineer, and wants to marry Kate but believes writing stories is a waste of time. One day whilst repairing the fire in the Parsonage sitting room, Kate sees a small volume of Shakespeare on the shelf. She decides to borrow it, only to be caught by Charlotte Brontë. When Miss Charlotte discovers Kate’s passion for books, a friendship begins to develop. Charlotte and her sister Anne fill Kate’s head with ideas of equality between women and men. “Women feel just as men feel,” declares Miss Charlotte. Kate confides in Charlotte that she writes and is encouraged to see her writing as more than just a dream. When Miss Charlotte discovers Kate’s passion for books, a friendship begins to develop. Charlotte and her sister Anne fill Kate’s head with ideas of equality between women and men. “Women feel just as men feel,” declares Miss Charlotte. Kate confides in Charlotte that she writes and is encouraged to see her writing as more than just a dream. Kate also begins to spot clues that the Brontë sisters are writing novels.



Then she meets Seth, an artist, on the moor with equally free ideas about women and men. Now Kate is faced with a dilemma. Marriage to the dependable Luke or a new independent life, influenced by Seth and his artist friends.



The novel ends a year after it opens with Kate making the biggest decision of her life.



 



Miriam Halahmy has written a novel which brings the Brontës alive for a new generation of readers. Themes of women’s rights, the harsh realities of poverty and inequality are illuminated in uncluttered, beautiful character-driven storytelling and through it all shines the indomitable spirit of the human soul. In a world of increasing inequality and global attacks on women’s rights, this is a novel for our time.