Watercolor

JS: If all four siblings were alive today, what would you ask them?

High waving heather ‘neath stormy blasts bending

AD: Anne’s last letter contained a reference to the many ‘plans and schemes’ that were in her head. I’d like to ask her about those. Emily I’d ask, Did you have a boyfriend?? Was there a second novel? There aren’t as many questions to ask Charlotte because there’s a lot of information available; I’d ask her about her ongoing works. Branwell’s question would be: where did it all go wrong?

High waving heather ‘neath stormy blasts bending, Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars, Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending, Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending, Man’s spirit away from its drear dungeon sending, Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars. All down the mountain sides wild forests lending One mighty voice to the life-giving wind, Rivers their banks in their jubilee rending, Fast through the valleys a reckless course wending, Wider and deeper their waters extending, Leaving a desolate desert behind. Shining and lowering and swelling and dying, Changing forever from midnight to noon; Roaring like thunder, like soft music sighing, Shadows on shadows advancing and flying, Lightning-bright flashes the deep gloom defying, Coming as swiftly and fading as soon.

JS: How would you encourage people to connect with them?

AD: Read the novels and walk on the moors. That’s how to really enter into their creativity.

*This quote comes from Robert Southey, a literary predecessor of Charlotte Bronte’s who, when she wrote to him as a twenty year old, replied: “Literature cannot be the business of a woman’s life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it, even as an accomplishment and a recreation.”

Interview by Jane Steele

Emily’s Brontë’s hand-written works are reproduced here by kind permission.

Emily Jane Brontë