English poet Christina Rossetti was BOTD in 1830. Born in London to Italian immigrant parents, she was educated at home, in a household that entertained visiting Italian scholars, artists and revolutionaries. Her father’s illness caused the family financial difficulties, and she suffered a nervous breakdown in her early teens, taking solace in religion. Her brother, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, became a central figure in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, reviving the family’s fortunes. Christina posed for many of his paintings, notably The Girlhood of Mary Virgin and the Annunciation scene Ecco Ancilla Domino. She published her first poems in the Athenaeum and later in the Pre-Raphaelite journal The Germ. Her first commercially printed collection, Goblin Market and Other Poems were published in 1862. Widely praised by critics, she became the most respected female poet of her generation, and continued to write and publish until her death in 1894, aged 64. Her Christmas poems In the Bleak Midwinter and Love Came Down at Christmas were set to music after her death, becoming highly popular carols in Victorian England. Her work fell out of favour during the early 20th century, but had a revival in popularity in the 1970s. Goblin Market has been extensively analysed by feminist and queer scholars for its erotic and lesbian subtext, leading to speculation that Rossetti may have been attracted to women. A. S. Byatt’s 1990 novel Possession features a Victorian poet Christabel LaMotte based heavily on Rossetti, who lives secretly in a lesbian relationship with another writer.