Charlotte Brontë in Babylon

First premiered in 2016, a new chance to listen to Charlotte Cory's Charlotte Brontë in Babylon audio play. In BBC Radio 4 Extra:

Charlotte Brontë in Babylon (5 episodes)
by Charlotte Cory

Drama charting five momentous visits Charlotte Brontë made to London. After being accused of deceit by the publisher of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë and her sister Anne, leave Haworth and rush down to London to put the matter right.

Monday to Friday 14.15 h

Directed by Charlotte Riches
Produced by Susan Roberts
Charlotte ... Samantha Power
Anne ... Sara Bahadori
Mrs Smith ... Claire Brown
George ... Ben Lamb
Patrick /Shop Assistant ... Robert Pickavance
Mrs Smith ... Claire Brown
Thackeray ... Jonathan Keeble
Eliza ... Emily Pithon
Sarah ... Suzie Grimsdick
Critic ... Hamilton Birstock
Lady Davenham ... Ursula Holden Gill

Charlotte Brontë made 5 trips down to London in the course of her momentous, short-lived but meteoric literary career. These trips chart the story of her relationship with her young publisher (and his watchful, horrified Mama), Charlotte's wide-eyed enthusiasm at visiting the place of her childhood dreams at long last and being lionized as a writer by readers. We see her difficult relationships with other authors and critics - and then the gradual disillusionment setting in as this intense, painfully honest and gauche Yorkshire novelist gradually acquires self knowledge and a clear-eyed view of the cruel and shallow fashionable literary world she had long aspired to be part of.

Episode One

After being accused of deceit by the publisher of Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë and her sister Anne, leave Haworth and rush down to London to put the matter right.

The first of five momentous visits Charlotte Brontë made to the capital in the course of her short-lived but meteoric literary career.

Episode Two

After the death of her brother and sisters, Charlotte Brontë returns to London to face the critics of her second novel Shirley.

Episode Three

When Charlotte Brontë's publisher George takes her on a whirlwind tour of London, she begins to question if pleasure is replacing business in their relationship.

Episode Four

Charlotte Brontë arrives in London excited to see her publisher George again and keen to take things further. George's Mama however, seems determined to keep the pair apart.

Episode Five

Charlotte Brontë arrives to an awkward reception in the Smith household. It seems her hosts are not at all pleased with their depiction in Charlotte's new novel Villette.

It's one of the radio choices of The Times:

The dramatist Charlotte Cory’s five-part series starring Samantha Power charts five visits Charlotte Brontë made to London. The first comes after her publisher wrote her a letter accusing Charlotte of “double dealing” over the use of the pen name Currer Bell, forcing Charlotte and her sister Anne to leave Haworth and rush down to the capital to put the matter right. Each 15-minute episode follows Charlotte’s relationship with her young publisher, her dreams of literary fame as well as the strains on the sisters of keeping their identities as female authors a secret. The experience of the harsh and shallow fashionable literary world comes at a cost. (Ben Dowell)