Mabel Ferrett. In Memoriam

With some delay we report the death of Mabel Ferrett (1917-2011), poet, Brontë scholar, novelist, journalist and local historian.

Time working at the Red House Museum in Gomersal saw Mrs Ferrett explore her passion for the works and lives of the Brontë sisters.
The red-brick house was home to cloth merchants the Taylor family, whose daughter Mary was one of Charlotte Brontë’s closest friends.
Mrs Ferrett’s fascination with the family led to her writing two books, entitled The Brontës in the Spen Valley [1978, expanded in 1997] and The Taylors of the Red House [1987].  (The Huddersfield Daily Examiner)

She is also the author of Shirley Country (1973), A Short History of Hartshead (1993) and
"Shirley by Charlotte Brontë: The Importance of Proper Names," Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society 17:87 (1988), 9-16.

From her poem "Emily Brontë" (published on Scathed Earth,  1996)

She is a pylon, set into the grit
Of the moor's edge.
Her power rests on stone.
Paris and Moscow and Pekin have cells
Where, like an agitator, she can work alone.
She is a rebel where man's evil creeds
Close in on man.

More information in The Yorkshire Post.

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