Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Mab Jones introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, with whom she identifies most - and extracts the lessons we could all learn from her.

Mab is a poet and a recent recipient of a Creative Wales Award, and a frequent presenter of BBC radio documentaries, including 'Hiraeth' and 'The Black Chair'. Mab is also the coordinator of International Dylan Thomas Day, consisting of 62 events around the globe. Her publications include 'Poor Queen' and 'take your experience and peel it'.

In this series of The Essay, five female writers offer a personal guide to favourite and well-known female fictional characters - extracting the lessons we could all learn from them.

The writers in this series include broadcaster Afua Hirsch, historian Bettany Hughes, poet Fiona Sampson and award-winning novelist Francesca Rhydderch.

With Lunchtime Concert, In Tune, Free Thinking, The Verb and The Listening Service all broadcasting from the festival, The Essay is part of Hay Week at BBC Radio 3.