Brontë Society Gazette. Issue 42

The January issue of the Brontë Society Gazette (Issue 42) is already available. The Gazette editor is Richard Wilcocks (who also runs the Brontë Parsonage Blog, where some news that now appear in the Gazette were previously posted and is the present Chairman of the Brontë Society). The Gazette will be available for download in the Brontë Parsonage website.

In the Chairman's Letter, Richard Wilcocks insists once again in how English classics are taught in England:

Part of the Times Education Supplement interview was about my opinion (not just mine) that the English (or 'Literacy') curriculum in schools in England and Wales is fragmented and mechanistic, most pupils encountering the classics only by way of occasional worksheets containing brief extracts - for example a few Lowood paragraphs from Jane Eyre. (...)

Articles:

A Radical Emphasis. On the Cornelia Parker's Brontëan Abstracts exhibition.

Nelson and Bronte - A Hair's Breadth of History. A proposal to the Greater London Authority by Cornelia Parker.

Plans for 2007 :

(...) The programme of special education projects aimed at disadvantaged groups will (funding permitting) continue with The Collecting Place. This will involve working with photographer Simon Warner and a group of visually-impaired youngsters. A walk-in camera obscura will be constructed and used to create large-format images of the Parsonage and other Bronte-related sites. This will form the basis of an exhibition.
"There will also be talks by Gaskell biographer Jenny Uglow (celebrating the anniversary of the publication of Life of Charlotte Bronte), Pamela Norris, author of Words of Love: Passionate Women from Heloise to Sylvia Plath, Gail Nina Anderson from the Friends of the Laing Gallery (on John Martin), biographer and novelist Victoria Glendinning (on writers and their homes) and a panel discussion focusing on Bronte biography which will feature Juliet Barker, Rebecca Fraser, Lyndall Gordon, Edward Chitham and Justine Picardie. (...) (Andrew McCarthy)

Peter Ashton,

Peter Ashton was coopted by Council as our new Honorary Treasurer at a meeting on 2 December. This followed a series of events over several months which included
an appeal to the membership by Chairman Richard Wilcocks and an Extraordinary General Meeting in Haworth on Saturday 14 October.
The EGM was attended by 41 members, 40 of whom voted for the motion, which was to amend the Articles of Association to enable Council to coopt when "exceptional circumstances" have arisen. There was one abstention, and one letter against the motion, part of which was read out. Of the 212 postal votes received, 179 were for the motion and 13 against. (...)

Brontë crater by Paul Daniggelis.

What's in a name by Kristina Bedford

With a strong Interest in the history of Yorkshire -especially the West Riding - as well as Bronte history, I'm nerdishly thrilled when the two overlap. Juliet Barker convinced me once and for all in The Brontes that Branwell didn't go to London and so couldn't have drunk away his Royal Academy fees at boxing-hero Tom Spring's Castle Tavern, slinking back to Haworth with his tail between his legs. (...)

So, barring hallucination, conspiracy, or memory-loss, how can Grundy, Leyland and Phillips all be telling the truth? Is London a myth, a misunderstanding, or both, one based on the other?

Which is where West Riding history fits in. Having discovered the contemporary local pronunciation of Luddenden was in fact "London" - with Luddendenfoot "London-foot" -I wonder if Branwell wasn't enjoying a matey in-joke with the Black Bull's landlord ? (...)

Every speaker impressed me by Marcia Zaaijer

From Judge Dredd to Heathcliff

The Discovery of Charlotte Bronte by William Smith Williams (1800-1875) by Norman E. Penty

Parsonage People: Polly Salter by Richard Wilcocks

The Brontës at Haworth, on the book by Ann Dinsdale

Brief news

An Acme of Desolation by Brian Wilks
Coming to a screen near you.
New editor for Bronte Studies
As if in her own words, on Sarah Fermi's Emily Brontë's Journal.
Un'amica dal passato on Madalena Di Leo's book.
Obituary: Raymond Scatcherd
Thornbush Farm Saved

Categories: Brontë Society, Journals