ANNE Brontë is muscling in on her elder sister Charlotte's 200th anniversary year.

A biography of the least-known Brontë sister will be published during the worldwide bicentennial celebrations of Charlotte’s birth.

In Search Of Anne Brontë is hailed as the first biography of the youngest Brontë siblings in over half a century.

Nick Holland’s book, in advance of Anne’s on bicentennial in 2020, claims to reveal a life filled with light and loss.

Nick Holland, who lives in Yorkshire, is a bestselling author, professional copywriter and active member of the Brontë Society, and he runs the website and blog annebronte.org.

The History Press, the book’s publisher, said Anne Brontë was often overshadowed by her older and more famous sisters Emily and Charlotte.

Yet she remains a bestselling author nearly two centuries after her death at the age of 29.

A spokesman said: “Anne Brontë lived and died in total obscurity - nobody knew the private and honest woman was in fact bestselling author Action Bell - and yet her works and her life still fascinate readers nearly two hundred years on.

“The brilliance of Anne’s poetry and of her two boundary-pushing novels, the revolutionary Agnes Grey and the feminist Tenant of Wildfell Hall, belies the quiet, truthful woman who often lived in the shadows as the youngest Brontë.”

The “revealing” new biography opens Anne’s most private life to a new audience, and imparting her talents to a new generation.

It explores Anne’s life from birth and early childhood to her writing career and the great difficulties she faced in becoming a published author.”

In Search Of Anne Brontë is said to cover the true nature of her relationship with her sister Charlotte - one sometimes fraught with jealous rivalry.

Nick Holland pieces together a fuller picture of Anne’s life together using letters, firsthand accounts of close relatives and friends, and her own works.

He reveals that Agnes Grey contains 60 examples drawn from Anne’s experiences.

In Search of Anne Bronte will be published on March and will cost £20 in hardback.

The Brontë Society, which runs the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, has this year launched the Brontë200 festival, which over five years will celebrate the 200th anniversaries of the births of siblings Charlotte, Emily, Branwell and Anne.

The festivities this year focus on Charlotte, writer of classic novels including Jane Eyre, with regular events centred on Haworth and Brontë Country.