On 30 July 1818, in the Yorkshire village of Thornton, a baby’s cries cut through the air. Emily Brontë had just come into the world, the fifth child of Irish priest Patrick Brontë and his wife, Maria Branwell. But as Maria held the newborn for the first time, she could never have dreamed of the impact this child – and her sisters – would have on literature, with the world voraciously consuming their work for centuries to come.

Emily’s younger sister, Anne, was born on 17 January 1820 – 200 years ago this year. Three months after her birth, the family moved to Haworth – a bleak Yorkshire town on the cusp of industrialisation, with newly built mills churning the water of the River Worth, and encircled by a wild expanse of moorland. The family inhabited Haworth’s parsonage, built from dark-coloured brick and offering views of the local graveyard. The next year, the