The Beat That My Heart Skipped – A blog dedicated to daily design inspirations. By Rohini Wahi.

‘Surely my life was destined for greater things than this’ I sob as I epilate my legs in agony. Who was the first traitorous woman who thought ‘I know what will impress all the boys – if I remove all my hair’. I have a few choice words for that smart Alec [or Alice]. Apparently medieval woman used to pluck their hairlines to give them higher foreheads – thank god someone decided that was a mistake. With the amount of hair I have it would be like trying to pluck an alsatian. I haven’t tried but I assume it is tricky.

Of course woman have a long history of sufferage so perhaps I should ‘man up’ or at least ‘woman up’. Afterall these are just my mere modern woman woes. Although I have to wax my legs at least I don’t have to chain myself to railings for the vote, worry about bearing a sone and heir or slave at the hearth all day. No I have it easy compared to the woman of the past and there is nothing to remind you of this quite like a book of sorrow. Female sorrow to be exact.

A taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan is about a trio of perhaps some of the most fasincating woman in our British History; The Bronte sisters. It takes a true writing genius to write a Jane Eyre, a Villette or of course a Wuthering Height but what speaks from these books and what makes them stand out from perhaps Jane Austen or other female classical writers is the true depth of pain and anguish between the pages.

This book captures the luminous Bronte World within the Yorkshire Moors and envelopes you within the biography of the girls. Although the book is fictional you get a true sense from Morgan’s writings that you are there. The slow and languorous writing is strangely captivating.

The minutia and detail the book enters into such as with family incidents and the small encounters in their lives makes it totally convincing. Morgan’s storytelling is based on a framework of a great true story perhaps even as great as the ones they wrote themselves.

Opening with the death of their mother, Maria, life has dealt the young girls Anne, Emily and Charlotte a cruel hand. The light at the end of the tunnel is enlightenment through learning a priveledge not bestowed on many girls at their time but sorrow is the core theme of this book. Weaving it’s way through every aspect of their lives the two elder sisters Maria and Elizabeth die of consumption whilst away at their grim devout church school. A school which will be all too familiar to those Jane Eyre readers.

The three famous sisters have a life littered with sadness – their poor but proud father,  their spinster aunt, the separation from siblings when maturity forces it, their never fitting in and of course being brilliant but worthless because they are women..

Yet, the odd thing about the Brontes was that all they wanted in life was to be at home, together, the three sisters and their brother Branwell, in their quiet familiar world conjuring great stories and whiling away the hours together. That is the greatest light to break free from all the torment. The skill and passion of their writing would bind them together and raise them above it. A book like this can never be sorrowful.

Their nanny instills into them ‘it is better to be good than clever’ but thank god they never listened. What would the world be without the Brontes? Sorrowful indeed. Sisterhood is infectious so make sure you catch some by devouring this book – Lauren x