The Bronte Girl

Readers who love YA historical fiction will fall in love with Kate Roper, a 15 year old girl from Haworth, West Yorkshire, who finds herself working at the Parsonage, home to Reverend Bronte and his four children, Bramwell, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

"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 farmers 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

Kates passion for books, a friendship begins to develop. Charlotte and her sister Anne fill

Kates 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 womens 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 womens rights, this is a novel for our time.