‘Brontë’s Mistress’ may speculate, but it does so delightfully
Finola Austin writes in her author's note, “Brontë’s Mistress is a work of fiction,” and she adds, “I don’t pretend that it records what happened between Lydia and Branwell, but given the facts at our disposal, it imagines what could have happened.”
The Lydia she mentions is Lydia Robinson, wife of Rev. Edmund Robinson, who in 1843 hired a dashing young tutor for her children at Thorp Green Hall, a few miles northwest
