Daughter of the Northern Fields — Pamela Haines

Christabel Woodward is the darling of her prosperous, mill-owning father until one day he has a sudden and bewildering change of heart. He has read her mother's story, written in three exercise books and usually kept well hidden, and he knows her secret: Christabel is not his own child, but the illegitimate daughter of Branwell Bronte. Branwell died at thirty-one, an obsessive and tormented wreck of a man who was ruined by drinking, drug addiction and bouts of depression. All Christabel's mother has left of her secret love are a lock of auburn hair and Branwell's daughter, whom he has never known. First published in 1987, Daughter of the Northern Fields is Christabel's story. It is the story of a girl who loses all those whom she loves most dearly and is forced to leave the wild Yorkshire moorland which is her home. A girl who is abused by a shattering rape which leaves her feeling she can never again love or be loved. But Christabel is destined to experience a joy that she had not dared to believe possible. In this impressive novel Pamela Haines brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the Brontes' Yorkshire. With her courage, her indomitable spirit and her depth of feeling, Christabel is a creation worthy of the pages of a Bronte novel.