Judi Dench appeals for public help to bring rare Brontë book to UK as auction looms

A miniature book by the teenage Charlotte Brontë could fetch at least £650,000 in Paris next week, and Haworth’s Parsonage museum hopes to buy it with crowdfunding

Judi Dench, Jacqueline Wilson and Tracy Chevalier are among several names throwing their weight behind the Brontë Parsonage Museum’s bid to keep one of Charlotte Brontë’s tiny manuscripts from being “shut away in a private collection”, with public donations topping £50,000 with just a week to go before the miniature book is auctioned.

Written in 1830 when Brontë was 14, the manuscript measures just 35mm x 61mm and features three hand-written stories, one of which describes a murderer who is driven to madness when he is haunted by his victims. In private ownership since the death of Charlotte in 1855, the last of the famous literary sisters to die, it is one of six tiny booklets produced by the writer at the Parsonage in Haworth. Only five are known to have survived, and the museum owns the remaining four of the “little books”.

Related: Charlotte Brontë's hair found in ring on Antiques Roadshow, say experts

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