Perhaps it was Browning’s early life which taught her that the extraordinary lives within the ordinary, if we care to look.

Chronically unwell and largely confined indoors, she nevertheless cultivated a rich interior life of reading, thinking, and writing.

Her dramatic elopement with Robert Browning (escaping both London’s unhealthy air and a controlling father) transformed that private world. Living in Italy gave her the freedom to trust her voice more fully, writing not only about love but about injustices she believed society preferred not to see, from slavery to child labour.

In Aurora Leigh (1856), she expresses a conviction that runs quietly through much great literature:

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God.”

Over to you: tell me about a text or quotation that strikes you as spiritual – especially if isn’t especially religious.