Charlotte Bronte

The daughter of an Irish clergyman and one of the 19th century's most celebrated novelists, Charlotte Bronte was born in Yorkshire in 1816. Her novels include The Professor, Jane Eyre and Villette. Her two sisters, Emily and Anne, were also gifted writers. Emily wrote poetry and the stunningly original novel Wuthering Heights. Anne was the author of two novels: the highly-praised Agnes Grey and the outspokenly feminist The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Emily and Anne died of TB at the ages of 30 and 29 respectively. Charlotte married her father's Irish curate, Arthur Nicholls, in 1854, but died during the early months of her first pregnancy at the age of 39.