Some children create imaginary friends or host tea parties for their stuffed animals. But the Brontë children? Their fanciful imaginations cast a much wider net. Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell created entire fictional lands called Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal, complete with specific geographies, elaborate mythologies, and characters and events based on the news headlines of the day.
In this fascinating event, historian and Brontë expert Emma Butcher, author, illustrator and lecturer, Isabel Greenberg, and principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Ann Dinsdale, take a closer look into the juvenilia, exploring the ways these early manuscripts, though oftentimes difficult to read, provide a glimpse into the literary genius of the Brontës’ later works and remain an important artefact in understanding their family dynamics.