JANE EYRE - BRONTE FACED LEGAL ACTION

CHARLOTTE BRONTE risked libel action over her portrayal of a school in her legendary book JANE EYRE, according to a set of newly discovered letters. The 19th Century writer had to retract a passage describing the awful conditions of Lowood School - based on her own schooldays at the Clergy Daughter's School in Lancashire, northern England. She also based the hard-bitten headmaster MR BROCKLEHURST on real-life principal REVEREND WILLIAM CARUS-WILSON, who threatened legal action against Bronte as a result. A court battle was only avoided when the author sent Carus-Wilson a written apology. The letters between the pair have been put up for auction by an anonymous London book dealer. Documents expert RICHARD WESTWOOD-BROOKES says, "It is the most tantalising mystery. "Somewhere, in someone's attic, there may well be a manuscript of Charlotte Bronte's retracting an essential passage of Jane Eyre."