When I left Lahore in Pakistan to study at Leeds University I was determined to visit Haworth and the Brontës Parsonage Museum.

I did a Masters in English Literature in Pakistan. One of the books I loved the most was Wurthering Heights by Emily Brontë. When I knew I was going to Leeds I was thinking I was going to Yorkshire, were the Brontës were living and they were born. It was like a dream for me.

When I arrived in Howarth for the first time having read so much about the place where the Brontë family lived for over 40 years, I remember that it was a surreal experience.

To start with there was a steep hill going up to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. I had read in Pakistan that this cobbled street used to be full of sewage and TB was rife in those days. Now you can see the street is clean and you can see tourists roaming around everywhere.

Died of TB

I think it's sad that most of the Brontë household died young of TB. It is tantalizing to think about what the sisters might have written had than survived into middle age.

Wali at the bottom of the cobbled street which leads to the Brontës Parsonage.

Moving on towards the parsonage Wali passes Haworth church. "The church where their father used to be the priest, has all those Victorian looks and all those dark and grey surroundings you can imagine in the novels.

Going into the Parsonage Museum is a beautiful experience.

When you go in you see the living room and the couch where Emily died. It's a moving experience. You can't believe she died at this very place.

I can imagine them moving around

The Brontë Society has turned the parsonage into a museum. The society has bought and preserved everything they could which belonged to the Brontë family: their hair, their shoes, their glasses, their little books.

Brontë Parsonage: where the children slept and played

I can just imagine them moving around the house and sitting by the heater and having their coffee.

If someone in Pakistan wants to visit somewhere related to English literature in the UK this would be one of the best places.


The Brontë sisters are very popular in Pakistan... .... I think if you want to see the England of Brontë times you want to go to Pakistan because you can see all those surroundings, all those relationships, all those arranged marriages, all those limited opportunities for women.

Yorkshire is a place where you can see where they were born but if you want to feel what it was like then you need to go to Pakistan.

Top Withens

Definitely I want to go back to the museum for a fourth time. I would love to visit Top Withens. It takes over an hour to walk up to this bleak place on the Yorkshire moors. It's very possibly the location that inspired Emily Brontë to write Wurthering Heights.