Learning not to be first

Variously described as 'the high-priestess of Pre-Raphaelitism' and 'Saint Christina', Christina Rossetti was born in 1830 into a talented Italian emigre family. While her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti forged ahead as a painter, founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Christina remained single and wrote poetry 'with a passion and purity of diction'. Kathleen Jones has written a fascinating biography, which lucidly describes both Christina's life and work, and her Victorian world.