How could a young woman without much formal education and little experience of life produce such a work as Wuthering Heights? How did a lively, extrovert child turn into a reserved and defensive mature woman, highly self-critical and secretive? This new biography of Emily Bronte uses hitherto relatively neglected material to provide a portrait of Emily's life and art. Concentrating on her childhood, the author examines Emily's relationship with her family and her contacts with people outside the family, and develops his previous research into the influence of her father's Irish background. He has made a study of extant manuscripts and takes into account recent advances in scholarship and improved poem texts. The book looks as questions such as - what was the nature of Emily's feelings for Charlotte, Anne and Branwell, when was Wuthering Heights conceived and was there a major revision, and was Emily writing a second novel when she died?