Jane Shilling on I Shall Soon Be Thirty

Charlotte Bronte's true identity explored through her powerful and poignant letters - letters which are often particularly revealing when read with the beneift of hindsight.

The journalist Jane Shilling has reflected on women, ageing and creativity in her book, The Woman in the Mirror. Two hundred years after Charlotte Bronte's birth, Jane Shilling wonders about her feelings as she wrote to her dear friend, Ellen Nussey, "I shall soon be 30 and have done nothing yet", shortly before embarking on her greatest work, Jane Eyre.

Producer: Beaty Rubens.