An exhibition exploring the short life of the author of one of the most famous books in the English language has been unveiled at the Bronte shrine in Haworth.

It is the first time the Bronte Parsonage Museum has assembled a display of every item bosses own connected with Emily Bronte, the writer of Wuthering Heights. The display has been put together by popular demand from people wanting to know more about the author who died aged just 30 in 1848.

The exhibits include intimate items such as her ink-scribbled blotting paper over which academics have pored in a desperate bid to get more information about the most elusive of the Bronte clan. It also features her writing desk, poetry manuscripts, costumes and more mundane items such as her Christening mug.

Almost all of the material is rare and precious because Emily was the most mysterious and private of the Bronte family.

Bronte Parsonage Museum collections manager Ann Dinsdale hopes the exhibition will give people a new insight into the life and soul behind the author. Hence the title of the year-long display: No Coward Soul - the title of her most famous poem.

Reflecting Emily's short life and introspective nature, the collection is a relatively small and intimate display as she left no diary and was possibly the shyest of the siblings, said Mrs Dinsdale.

But she said it was enough to paint a picture of the woman who never lived to see the huge success of her novel which is set on nearby Haworth Moor.

"We have many things belonging to Emily's sister, Charlotte, but not many of Emily's," said Mrs Dinsdale. "She didn't have many friends outside her family and didn't really want them, it seems.

"She may have been introspective but, as her poem says, she had courage. She was quietly confident in her ability.

"The claim that she wanted to stay at home and not mix is exaggerated because despite her first volume of poems being rejected she still went ahead with the publication of Wuthering Heights."

She was also very down to earth and practical and was the one who did the housework, she added.

The exhibition, which opens this weekend marking the start of the new season, also shows her talents as an artist.

The year of her death, 1848, was a particularly sad time for the Bronte family. She died in the December only three months after her brother Branwell, who was 31.