Jonty Claypole

So Charlotte Smith, she was one of Jane Austen's favourite writers, particularly when Jane was a teenager.

And again, we're going to see how Charlotte Smith's work ends up in Jane Austen's.

And like so many of these other women, her story is one of immense triumph against adversity.

So she was born in 1749 in London.

Her father was actually well off, but he was an absolute public school rogue, a terrible spendthrift.

He inherited a fair bit of money and blew it all.

And when she was 15, he married her off to the son of a

plantation owner.

So a man who owned plantations and of course that meant many slaves in the Caribbean and the son was called Benjamin Smith.

Now Charlotte Smith much later in her life wrote about this moment and she said that very bluntly that her father turned her into a legal prostitute.

So for anyone who thinks that in the 18th century standards were just different and sort of women didn't expect the same freedom that women have now, I find that line exposes the lie.

Charlotte Smith was under no illusions what had happened to her when she was married at 15.

She had been prostituted by her father.

And even more unfortunately, her husband, Benjamin, turned out to be every bit as unreliable and selfish, irresponsible as her father.

So although she'd been married to him because of his money, because of his inheritance, he too lost it all, squandered it all.

And he ended up in a debtor's prison in 1783.

And she, as wives often did at the time, also went along to the debtor's prison and

And by the way, in those 10 years of marriage, she'd had, I think it's 12 children she'd had as well.

So it's in debtor's prison in 1783 that she decides she's got to do something to get them out of it.

And she does what I would not encourage anyone to do, which is she decides to write poetry.