Charlotte Mew and her friends

Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was a poet with a formidable reputation.

In her private life, to all appearances, she was a dutiful daughter living at home with a monster of an old mother.

The proprieties had to be observed and no one must know that the Mews had no money, that two siblings were insane and that Charlotte was a secret lesbian, living a life of self-inflicted frustration.

Despite literary success and a passionate, enchanting personality, eventually the conflicts within her drove her to despair, and she killed herself by swallowing household disinfectant.