This is a non-fiction book, part biography of Elizabeth Branwell, part analysis of the context of the Brontë family. I found it an easy read, written accessibly, but also not quite sure where it was aimed. Did it want to give the reader insight into who this woman was, or did it want to focus on her more famous niblings? It felt like it didn't focus enough on giving a sense of Elizabeth Branwell herself, instead delving a bit too far into speculation of who was whose favourite aunt/niece, which came across rather unscientific. It was an ok read, but not one I'd recommend.

Really interesting and cleverly written book, I love anything to do with the Bronte's being a Yorkshire lass so I was really keen on reading this one and it didn't disappoint.
I learnt a lot from this book, it's well researched and very enjoyable., even though I did feel that the pacing was a little slow at times and that certain chapters felt a little long-winded and could have got away with them being a little shorter but overall enjoyable.
Definitely recommended for any reader who loves the Bronte's

Nick Holland's work is well-written, informative, and enlightening. I admit, before reading this book, I had not given much thought to the role that Elizabeth Branwell truly fulfilled in the Bronte household and the influence she had on their writing careers. Holland provides insight into the household and into Elizabeth's mindset with the very little left directly from her own words; the use of historical relevance to the time period, descriptions from others, and the reference points that reflect her in the lives of her nieces and nephew. I truly enjoyed this book and have already recommended it to many of my fellow English lit major friends and colleagues. I think anyone interested in the time period, as Holland provides great information into what was happening in England during the life of Branwell, would also find this book highly enjoyable and informative.
Though reviewed rather late due to health concerns on my part, I thank NetGalley and the publisher for the egalley in exchange for my honest review.

As a fan of the Brontes, I was happy to read this book about their aunt and how she influenced their lives. Their aunt is usually shown to be cruel to her neices. However, in this biography she was actually a kind woman that loved her nieces and did everything she could to help them succeed. This, this was a eye-opening biography that changed my mind about Elizabeth and made me question Gaskell’s biography. I recommend this for fans of the Brontes and Romantic writers.

I liked this book. I wasn't sure if I would, because of the obscure subject matter, but I really did - The perspective was very light, the facts seemed reliable, and the story (life?) engrossing. This would be an enjoyable read for any Bronte or history fan!

The Bronte family has been the subject of many stories. The siblings all have had detailed stories, both fiction and non- fiction. Now their aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, has her own story. When a supporting character becomes the center of the story, it is the skill of the author that brings them to life. Nick Holland has done a fine job with Aunt Branwell who became the main parental figure for the Bronte siblings when their mother, Elizabeth's sister Maria, died. Background information on the sisters Branwell's childhood helps set the tone when the story moves to Yorkshire. The book is very interesting whether you are a Bronte fan or not. It easily pulls the reader into 1820's England, giving you the real feel of this time and age.

I loved that the author chose to write this biography on the woman who raised the famous Bronte children after the death of their mother. Much has been written about the family, but little about the woman who raised them. This was an interesting read and offered unique information about this family!

Aunt Branwell and the Brontë Legacy
by Nick Holland
Pen & Sword

Pen and Sword History
Biographies & Memoirs , History
Pub Date 30 Sep 2018



I am reviewing Aunt Branwell and the Bronte Legacy through Pen & Sword and Netgalley:


Elizabeth Branwell was born in Penzance in 1770 she was the member of a large and influential Cornish Family Of merchants and property owners. Her life change in 1821 when her sister Maria became very sick. Leaving the comfort of her home she made the long journey north to a remote moorland village in Yorkshire to care for her sister. After her sister's death Elizabeth took on the role of Mother to Maria's five nieces and nephew. She would never again set foot in Cornwall, instead she dedicated her life to the Bronte's to whom she was known as Aunt Branwell.


In this book we see the impact she had on Charlotte, Emily and Anne as well as her nephew Branwell Bronte who found himself spiraling control away from her calming influence.


I give Aunt Branwwll and the Bronte Legacy five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I have read a few books about the Brontë family and thought I would read this one thinking it would be interesting to find out more about Aunt Branwell the lady who brought up the Brontë children after their mother's death. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in this book as it is more of a basic story of the family and a couple of chapters at the end about Aunt Branwells side of the family. Sorry but lf you are wanting to learn more about the maternal side of the family you won't find anything new here.

Are you a Brontë fan? Do you already know a little about them and want to find out more? Then Nick Holland’s book about their Aunt Branwell, published by Pen and Sword, is definitely worth a read. In this short but informative exploration of Elizabeth Branwell’s life and connections, we learn about her influence upon the lives of her sister’s children: Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell.

Having read several Brontë novels, studied them at university, visited Haworth and read a biography of Charlotte, I couldn’t fail to be interested in this new angle on Brontë history. To be honest, I’d never given Elizabeth much thought, but this book demonstrated what a strong, supportive woman she was. If she hadn’t stepped into the lives of her nieces and nephew after their mother’s death, it’s likely we wouldn’t have heard of them today. The book is mainly chronological (I say mainly, because sometimes references are made to later events), starting with the Branwell family history and putting together a picture of Elizabeth’s youth in Penzance, Cornwall. We then move hundreds of miles north with her as she becomes part of Parsonage life. Later, her legacy is explored and her descendants are traced. I learned many new things, which is always my aim when reading non-fiction.

While I really enjoyed the content of this book, I thought that the sentences could have been better constructed. It’s the kind of thing I notice, unfortunately. There were many points in the writing where I thought, ‘this needs to be rephrased’ or ‘when you say ‘she’, which of the two women are you referring to?’ or ‘you’ve used ‘also’ twice in this sentence’. This was my first ARC requested from NetGalley, so I’m not sure whether copies have already gone through proofreading before they are provided for reviewers. I couldn’t help noticing the misplaced apostrophes which kept turning up – if you’re talking about something belonging to the Brontës as a plural, the apostrophe has to be after the ‘s’. Sorry to sound like the grammar police, but I expect published writers (or at least their editors or proofreaders) to know how to use apostrophes.

Anyway, that aside, I did like this book and I would recommend it if you want to gain more insight into this famous literary family. It’s worth noting that Elizabeth Branwell left no letters or diaries behind, so Nick Holland does an excellent job of pulling other sources together to create a portrait of her.

E-book provided by Pen and Sword via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Publication date: 30th September 2018.

There are many biographies about the Bronte family, yet their maternal aunt, Elizabeth Branwell, has remained a shadowy figure. This book aims to shed light on her contribution to the family and her role in nuturing and supporting the endeavours and literary talents of her young nieces and nephew.

This is the third book about the Bronte family that I have read this year and it was by far the most enjoyable. Breathing new life into the well-trodden area of biographies about this amazing family, the author has done a wonderful job in bringing Elizabeth Branwell to life from the scant information available. The book is well-researched and the author has an engaging writing style which draws the reader in.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Pen and Sword History, for the opportunity to review an ARC.

In my memories, family trips to the Brontë parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire, always took place on gloomy days. The venue looked sinister; a building built so close to a cemetery full of gravestones and memorials which lurched unevenly towards the living. The weather always seemed damp and dreary, and the moor appeared unending to my young eyes. The atmosphere inside felt no better. Branwell Brontë’s famous painting hung, if I recall, on the stairs. His attempts to paint himself out made him look like a foreboding spirit hovering behind his sisters. And, of course, there’s the tragic history of a man outliving his entire family, including his children. I knew Anne died in a different location, but I don’t think I properly realized that every other member of the family died in that house.

That includes Aunt Elizabeth Branwell, the subject of Nick Holland’s newest Brontë biography. Not much has been previously been published about the hidden woman behind the Brontë sisters’ writings. Aunt Branwell and the Brontë Legacy is quite possibly the first biography about her. She left no writings of her own, so we must rely on what has been written about her. Holland refers often to Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Brontë, arguing that Gaskell unfairly portrayed her as a hard and unloving woman. He gives examples of how she can be seen in the characters the sisters created in their novels, as both an aunt and a mother figure.

Holland begins with a description of Aunt Branwell’s youth in Penzance, Cornwall. This will be of particular interest to fans of Poldark, which is set around the time of Elizabeth Branwell’s birth in the same area. We get an interesting look at the heritage of Cornwall, with particular regard to its culture and folklore. It’s thought that the sisters incorporated into their writing aspects of the myths they heard from their aunt. There are many differences between Cornwall and Yorkshire, and one can only imagine what she sacrificed in order to take care of her sister’s family. Whatever Gaskell’s opinions, there’s no doubt that this is a woman who loved the Brontë siblings; her ultimate act of including them in her will put their writing careers in motion.

I found the book itself well written and easy to read. Perhaps it’s just me, but I did notice the electronic copy I received for review used the British English language throughout. This would make sense since the author is British, as is the publisher. Whether or not this will be changed for American readers when it’s released in the USA, I don’t know. I personally hope not, if only to retain the true tone of the author and his British subject matter. The sole problem I had is not the fault of the author. The Brontë and Branwell families followed naming traditions and, coupled with their apparent preference for popular names of the era, this means there is more than one Elizabeth and Charlotte appearing in the narrative. Thank goodness for the index; included along with notes and a select bibliography at the end of the book.

Are there any revelations in this book? It depends on what you knew about the family and Aunt Branwell prior to reading. I had only my childhood memories to go on, which admittedly may not be entirely accurate, and I knew nothing about the subject except that she was the aunt who helped raise the Brontë children. I didn’t know, for example, of the extent to which she inspired elements of the books that still grace many a bookshelf in the world. This isn’t just a good biography of Elizabeth Branwell. It also serves a concise introduction to the Brontë family history as well.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. I was not required to write a review, and the words above are my own.

This is the first book I have read by this author – so I had no pre judgements or expectations.
I found this to be an exceptionally easy read which was both well researched and presented. The love of the subject by the author came across beautifully – I can imagine if you were new to the story of the Bronte sisters this enthusiasm would also inspire you to further reading and research.

A mixture of fact and educated assumptions breathes life into the personality of Elizabeth Branwell – even though I’ve read a great deal about the Bronte family, Wuthering Heights being my all time favourite novel - this gave me new insights as I did not realise just how influential Elizabeth was – somehow she has always just been part of the furniture of the parsonage – metaphorically speaking. I was also moved by the realisation of just how much she gave up regarding her personal life and well being – to move 400 miles away from her other family members and the only home she had ever known in a time when travel was not an easy or comfortable undertaking – for the welfare and love of her nieces and nephew.

I was also interested to read about what happened after the death of Elizabeth and how her extended family fared.

Just for the fact alone of how the author presented Elizabeth – bringing her from a one dimensional figure in Bronte history to a 3 dimensional living being is worth a 5* - the fact that I enjoyed the book so much and was sad that it came to an end – confirms that this is definitely a recommended read and very worthy of a full five stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers Pen & Sword History for providing me with a digital advance reader copy for my honest and unbiased review

This is the fifth biography I have read this year, which focuses on my beloved Brontes and the first to explore the infamous sisters through the character of their Aunt.

I really appreciated this different approach and the alternative facts of their lives this further exposed. I did, however, seem to skip around a little and I found myself feeling submerged in local legends, features of the land, and particulars of the Bronte fiction that all seemed to intermingle in an overwhelming fashion. I wanted to pause on these intriguing topics to fully explore them but was never given he chance to do so before the relentless pace had me immersed in another area of interest.

I would have preferred a more elongated and in-depth analysis, as everything this detailed was of extreme interest to me, but unfortunately it was all just too briefly touched upon.

Although there are many gaps in our knowledge of this remarkable family, I think it's fair to say that - thanks to authors like Edward Chitham, not to mention Juliet Barker's monumental 'The Brontes' - the existing biographical material has been exhaustively mined. Nick Holland has already written two books on the literary sisters. His biography of Anne Bronte was a little disappointing to me, and he didn't exactly cover himself in glory when, earlier this year, he resigned from the Bronte Society, in protest at model Lily Cole's appointment as creative partner at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. So I was curious, if wary, about his latest book on the Brontes' aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. She is a somewhat marginalised, misunderstood figure within Bronte lore, having been unfairly stereotyped in the past as a dour, pious spinster. However, her influence must have been considerable, as she left her prosperous, sociable life behind to help raise the Bronte children after their mother (her sister) died. She also enabled the Bronte girls to launch their writing careers, having provided for them in her will. Holland delves into her Cornish heritage, and what became of the other Branwell relatives, arguing quite persuasively that the Brontes' maternal lineage was equally significant to their creative legacy as their father's. Whereas his biography of Anne veered towards the overly sentimental and speculative, with this book, Holland has found a subject amply suited to his approach, combining scholarly insight with storytelling.

Anyone who is interested in the Brontës cannot fail but be pleased to read more about the woman who helped raise them after their mother's passing. The author's sympathy for his subject and his desire to give her due credit come across very clearly and are commendable.

He is, however, hindered in his endeavour, because no letters or writings by her have survived. We can only see her through the eyes of others.
One of the difficulties in writing a biography is that the biographer, faced with a lack of evidence as is the case here, can be tempted to make hasty conclusions or suppositions.
I was disappointed by the amount of times the author did this, often making statements like "there can be no doubt that..." or she "must" have done this or that. We don't know those things, they are pure conjecture. It is possible, maybe likely... but without an actual source we cannot conclude anything without a doubt. One of the conclusions that seems most far-fetched to me, at least based on the evidence presented, is her supposed romantic attachment to her cousin Thomas Branwell or his premise that she must have had a suitor "if for nothing other than the conventions of the time".

The author also sometimes reverts to a different writing style, fictionalizing what he imagined took place, weaving tales with his usual aplomb as if it had actually happened the way he describes: "Elizabeth looked around with a smile of satisfaction on her face, nodding to the neighbours...".

He assigns a large portion of the blame for the commonly held perception of Aunt Branwell as a stern and unloving caretaker to Elizabeth Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Brontë. However biased or one-sided Mrs. Gaskell's biography may have been, she did not take as harsh a view of Aunt Branwell as we are led to believe, calling her "a kindly and conscientious woman" and even expressing admiration for Miss Branwell's decision to leave behind her happy life in Penzance to devote herself to her sister's children, "a severe trial for anyone at her time of life to change neighbourhood and habitation so entirely as she did; and the greater her merit."

Although it was wonderful to read a book with such focus on Aunt Branwell, its value lies mostly in presenting the information that is already out there in one concise volume, because we do not learn much more than what is already available through other books like that of Mrs. Gaskell or Juliet Barker's excellent comprehensive biography, "The Brontës".
I also really liked the way the author traced Aunt Branwell's influence on her nieces through their representation of her in their writings, which was very interesting.

The author is very thorough in describing Penzance, its history and people, and the extended Branwell family. A bit too thorough, in my opinion, because it leads him a quite far from the intended subject of his book and to my mind the information was not always that relevant.

I am a big fan of this authors work and was thrilled to get an ARC. As a massive Bronte fan who has read extensively I’m always on the look out for new books on the subject and this doesn’t disappoint. I loved this book. ‘Aunt’ Branwell has always seemed to me a much overlooked figure, but here we get to learn more about her early life and the sacrifices she made for her family. A truly admirable woman of courage and kindness. This work does her complicated life justice and she leaps from the page. Charlotte, Anne and Emily were undoubtably genius’ but it is doubtful there words would ever have been seen without the influence, love and money of their aunt.
I highly recommend it.
I was given a ARC but NetGalley all opinions are my own.

I do not know too much about the Bronte sisters of Branwell but this does seem to be a good book about them. It gives some interesting information about the interaction between Branwell and the Bronte family. So if you like to know more/a different angle about them this n=book does give you that. This is not a full-on biography about the sisters or Branwell, but later on with them.

This tells an unusual biography - not one of a writer, but one of someone who influenced a writer - or more accurately, four writers: the Brontës.

I've never actually been a fan of the Brontës' writing, but I am a fan of writing in general, and I'm always interested in the process: in how writers start out, where their inspiration comes from, how approach their work, and how they sit down day after day and write. I do have my own experiences, but it never hurts to learn of others'. Unfortunately for me, this book really didn't help in that regard. While Aunt Branwell's influence is touched upon, it's never really demonstrated, so for me, the book failed in its thesis.

The Brontës themselves (the surviving, writing Brontës that is) do not show up until forty percent into this book when Charlotte is born, so we get a long introduction to Elizabeth Branwell, her history, and her tenure in Penzance, Cornwall, on the very tip of England's west coast. I did not know until I read this that Cornwall had suffered a tsunami, caused by an earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal in 1755. This actually wasn't the first tsunami to strike the British coast (there was one in 6100BC that hit Scotland), but they are rare. There was one on the south coast in 1929, and a minor one as recently as 2011. It was on odd coincidence that simultaneously while reading this, I was also listening to an audiobook during my daily commute, which featured a tsunami.

But I digress! Elizabeth eventually left Penzance to stay with her sister in Yorkshire and was there at Charlotte's birth, and this is where I had some problems with the text. A major problem I had with this biography was in how it frequently leapt to conclusions and made unwarranted assumptions. For example, when Elizabeth gets the letter inviting her to visit her younger sister in Yorkshire, the author writes: "Tears welled in Elizabeth's eyes as she placed the letter carefully back into its envelope, but how should she respond?" How can this author possibly know what her emotions were? This kind of thing appeared more than once, and without any supporting reference, and it severely devalued the authenticity of the biography in my opinion.

Around this same event, I also read, "Elizabeth's intuitive response was to accept the invitation." The author knows what Elizabeth is intuiting at a specific moment how exactly? There is a reference at the end of this paragraph, but my intuitive response is that this reference relates to the difficulties of long distance travel in those days, and not to intuition and responses per se.

Later I read, "It was decided to call this third one Charlotte after her aunt in Cornwall, a move Elizabeth wholeheartedly approved of." And the author knows what Elizabeth wholeheartedly approves of how? If there had been a reference to a letter or a journal entry supporting this assumption, that would be one thing, but just to put this out there is meaningless when it's merely the author's evidently over-emotional opinion. It cheapens the whole work. It's possible to put heart and soul, into something without having to resort to pure invention which is what these comments felt like to me.

There were many instances of this, which had not seemed so prevalent before the Brontë children began showing up. It seemed like it was after that point that the story became rife with them as though the author had been lightning-struck by the arrival of the children and suddenly everything was ten times more dramatic. I read things like: " Ripping open the envelope, not standing on ceremony this time, she knew something was terribly wrong."

No, she really didn't. She merely got a letter in an unfamiliar hand! When she read the letter and learned that her younger sister was gravely ill, then she knew something was terribly wrong, but there is no foundation whatsoever for the blind assumption that she ripped the envelope open especially since, back then, the letter was the envelope as often as not, and 'ripping it open' would have actually torn the letter and made it harder to read!

I also read: "Elizabeth's mind raced as she slumped into a chair, letter clenched tightly in her hand." We don't know any of that! I can see how it would appeal to an author to imbue his writing with some emotional content, to leaven the dry facts, but there are limits to what's reasonable.

If you want to add that kind of dramatic flourish to it, then for goodness sake write it as fiction. This kind of intemperate invention does not belong in a biography! Another such instance was: "Branwell, just turned 4, looked on with a confident gaze, and a toddling Emily remained with shy suspicion in a corner." Really? And you know this how? It was the repeated influx of what can only be deemed to be pure fiction, which turned me off this biography and actually began to make me doubt some of the other things I'd already read.

With regard to their home education provided by Elizabeth Branwell, I read that the children "were, in general, able and eager students, although they also demonstrated a mischievous streak from time to time." Again, there's no reference for this, and no example given here of how they were mischievous, so why would the author say this? He adds later, "even though the lessons given by their Aunt Branwell were not always to their taste." How do we know this? Again, there's no reference. It doesn't matter how much of their history the author has read; if he or she cannot reference something, then it can be only opinion. It makes a big difference when opinion is substituted for actual evidence. It makes the whole biography untrustworthy.

In another instance, there was this:

When Elizabeth informed her nieces of her new subscription they were delighted, although Charlotte's announcement of it in a letter to her brother is characteristically muted: 'I am extremely glad that Aunt has consented to take in Fraser's Magazine for though I know from a description of its general contents that it will be rather uninteresting when compared with "Blackwood"
Blackwood was Charlotte's preferred magazine, so it hardly looks like she was "delighted" with her aunt's choice! Again, it leaches credibility from the account to have so much fanciful commentary added.

If the author had written, for example, that "Patrick's journal for that day reported that Elizabeth was slumped into a chair, letter clenched tightly in her hand," it would be one thing, even if some dramatic license had been taken with the verbs, but that's not what we read. If the author had reported, "according to some reports, the children demonstrated a mischievous streak from time to time," again, that would be another matter, especially if the reports had been referenced in the notes. If the author had reported, "When Elizabeth informed her nieces of her new subscription the children evidenced mixed feelings" and quoted Charlottes comments, that would have worked well, but this constant resorting to superlatives strongly suggests an overly emotional and unreliable reporting of events which is not what I want to be reading in a biography.

I read at one point about the children naming toy soldiers they had, which were characters in the various worlds they built in their evidently fertile imaginations:

Charlotte instantly named hers after her hero the Duke of Wellington, whereupon Branwell decided that his would be Napoleon Bonaparte. Even at this stage of his life - he was then aged eight - he delighted in being the anti-hero rather than the hero. We should also remember, however, that the twelve soldiers had been bought for Branwell, yet he willingly shared them with his sisters; this one early moment encapsulated the duality of his nature.
I'm sorry but I don't buy this. Charlotte instantly named hers? Maybe. Patrick deliberately chose an anti-hero rather than he just chose Napoleon because that man was the brain-dead option when his sister had chosen Wellington? Once again the author seems to be investing far too much fertile (if not fervid) imagination of his own into every action the children took.

Patrick was eight years old for goodness sake, yet already the author wants him to be well onto the downhill slide into addiction and intemperance which we know did not become part of his character until later in life. It's too much. The author fails to give us sufficient information for us to tell if Charlotte's naming was a one-time thing for a specific scenario they were playing out, and this is why Patrick chose Napoleon, or if Arthur Wellesley was the permanent name she gave him. In omitting this, he does the reader a disservice and to quote Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame, he rejects reality and substitutes his own.

The author can even read the thoughts of the dying! As a part of the description of Aunt Branwell's last hours, I read, "Her thoughts dwelt once again on her family in Cornwall, the beautiful coast she would see no more, and then upon her nieces." The problem with this was that she died of an apparent bowel obstruction and was in severe pain for four days. It seems to me a stretch to declare with such certainty where her thoughts were when pain was the foremost thing in her mind. It seems far more likely that her thoughts dwelled on wishing the pain to be over even if it meant her dying. I don't doubt that at times her mind was in other places, but to certify that we can read her thoughts with such confidence seemed disrespectful to me.

Their aunt never did know of her nieces' success. It was only after she died and the children received a very generous inheritance, that they embarked upon their 'professional' writing careers. The first effort was a book of poetry to which all three contributed quite a number of poems. They had to pay for the publication and it never did take off. It was this failure which far from stunting their growth, launched them into their prose careers. We're told that the poetry book was launched after Charlotte had discovered a book of poetry written by Emily. The poems were supposedly, "a key to Emily's soul, and she was furious when she learned Charlotte had found them. After days of silent, and not so silent, recriminations, Anne managed to persuade Emily of the opportunity the discovery had brought."

Given that Emily was widely known to be shy and retiring (even her signature was more restrained than that of her sisters!), this rage and several days of huffy silence felt like a lot of drama, too, especially since Charlotte herself went on record stating that "My sister Emily was not a person of demonstrative character"! The actual words Charlotte used in describing this particular incident were "It took hours to reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade her that such poems merited publication."

While we must make allowances for Charlotte perhaps downplaying emotions here, there's nothing there about fury and days of silence! This is all imagination. We can, using imagination, convince ourselves that Emily would have been at least embarrassed that her secret writing had been read, but anger? Perhaps a little, but the fact is, we do not know. This 'days of silence' is pure fiction. It took days to persuade her to publicly reveal her private writing, but this does not mean she was off in a huff somewhere, perhaps stalking the moors wearing sackcloth and with ashes in her hair, for goodness sake!

It's well known among Brontë aficionados that each of the three sisters chose a masculine name that preserved their initials while masking their femininity. Charlotte adopted Currer Bell, as the author suggests, perhaps taken from Frances Richardson-Currer a family friend who may have helped her father out of dire straits at one point with an anonymous donation.

Emily adopted the name Ellis Bell. The author assumes this to be a shortened version of Elizabeth, but that seems a stretch. We honestly don't know where it came from, but it's also been suggested it might be a reference to George Ellis, a friend of Walter Scott's, who is referenced in Scott's poem Marmion, which itself is mentioned in Jane Eyre.

Anne's experiences at Blake Hall, which were given new life in Agnes Grey, could equally have played a part. Anne's employer at the hall was Mary Ingham, whose father was Ellis Lister, an MP who presided over the Brontë's electoral district. But to me these are also a stretch. I prefer to think it was taken from contemporary writer Sarah Ellis. This would fit in with the other two sisters also choosing a (to them) well-known last name as their first.

The author suggests that the inspiration for Anne's choice of 'Acton' may be the castle her aunt had told her about during many childhood stories, but it could also have been from the last name of a recipe book writer and poet named Eliza Acton. She's largely unknown to us today, but may well have been in the Brontë library and for all we know could have been a beloved author of Anne's.

Of the surname, the author speculates: "It is often conjectured that the surname Bell was inspired by the sound of bells from their father's church; this may be so, but it could also be a contraction of the family name B(ranw)ell." Or it could have been the middle name of the curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls, whom Charlotte later married? There are too many options to be sure, and in the end we cannot really know. It's all guess-work!

Tragedy struck when three family members all died within a few months of each other. The apparent cause was tuberculosis, and the author seems to think this came from the visit made to London by Charlotte and Anne (Emily was too retiring!) to prove to their publisher that they were women - and not one man - who wrote all of these novels! He says, "Could one or other of the sisters have picked up a further dose of tubercle bacilli which when they returned to Haworth they handed on to Branwell and to Emily? This seems a most likely supposition. Almost certainly one or other of them introduced a new pathogenic element into the closed community of Haworth Parsonage, which wreaked so much havoc so quickly."

We can't know now who patient zero truly was, but it seems far more likely to me, since Branwell was the first to get sick and die, that it was his dissolute lifestyle that doomed them all. He died in late September 1848, and was doubtlessly nursed by his sisters, in particular, Emily, who then died in late December that same year. Anne, who was so very close to Emily died in late may of the following year. To me this scenario makes more sense than blaming Charlotte.

So evne to the end, this book felt like it was far too much authorial imagination, and not enough hard fact - or supported conjecture at least. I imagine when an author is writing a biography and researching endlessly, that they come to feel close to the subject of their research, but this is not the same thing as actually knowing them personally, and certainly not the same as actually having evidence for assertions that are made. For me, the author crossed that line too many times, and this is one of the two main reasons why I felt this book fell short.

The other is the fact that I think the underlying assertion, that Aunt Branwell was such an influence on these creative children, is not made convincingly. From all that I've read about the Brontes, and from this book too, it seems to me that while they were undoubtedly influenced by many things and people around them, including Aunt Branwell, these kids themselves were the biggest influence on their writing - their minds, their interaction with each other, and their wide reading, which made the perfect storm that became their oeuvre. While I wish the author all the best, I cannot commend this biography.

*I would like to thank Pen&Sword and Netgalley for issuing me with the copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.*
I am a great fan of the Bronte family and this book on Elizabeth Branwell adds massively to my knowledge regarding the 'queens of English literature'. The life of Miss Branwell is usually mentioned modestly on several pages of any book dealing with the lives of the Brontes, however Nick Holland decided (and rightly, too ) to explore in depth the life of the woman who spent over 20 years loving and caring for her sister's children, and to whom we should feel gratitude as it was her money,left in the will, that allowed the sisters to publish their works. Nick Holland describes the Cornish roots of the sisters' and deals with some negative myths and opinions as far as Miss Branwell is concerned. The Author relies on original period correspondence and writes in a very enteraining style, which makes the book accessible to any reader. A very interesting read!