Charlotte Smith

Charlotte (Turner) Smith (1749 – 1806) wrote her first book of poetry, Elegiac Sonnets (1784), in debtor’s prison. She wrote to support her children, and also published children’s books and novels, including Emmeline (1788); but saw herself first and foremost as a poet. Beachy Head and Other Poems was published in 1807. Praised by both Wordsworth and Coleridge, she is now recognised as an important Romantic writer.