Happy 2008!

The BrontëBlog Team would like to wish everyone a very happy new year!

Only in the Brontë field we can almost guarantee that it's going to be a good year. Take a gaze into the crystal ball with us:

Let's first direct our glances to the centre of the Brontë universe: the Brontë Parsonage Museum will reopen in February after its usual closed period displaying the most recent acquisitions (such as these items) and we have heard rumours that Emily's presence will be very strong in her former home too, since 2008 marks the 160th anniversary of her death.

As for books, it looks like we'll have a handful of new and exciting releases. To name just a few in chronological order: Justine Picardie's awaited new book, Daphne, is coming out around February/March and it will explore Daphne du Maurier's work on Branwell's biography, as the Guardian reminded us only a few days ago (but last year already!). Around that time too, in March, Laura Joh Rowland's new novel, The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë, will be published. By April we hope to see the definitive (or as definitive as these things get) biography of Patrick Brontë in print, as told by Dudley Green, whose knowledge of the Brontë father is very well founded after compiling and editing his letters a couple of years ago. Scheduled for the same date (though perhaps subject to change) is yet another biography of a key man in Brontë history: Arthur Bell Nicholls's story will be told by a family descendant, Alan H. Adamson, and whose possible cover we have only just discovered today. On a more lighthearted, though equally serious, note, Classical Comics is expected to release their Jane Eyre with artwork by John M. Burns and adapted by Amy Corzine around May. These are, of course, just a few. Stay tuned to BrontëBlog and you'll see how many more are released, both directly and tangentially Brontë-related.

The Brontës will be present in other formats as well. A new stage adaptation of Jane Eyre by N.G. McClernan will open in New York on February 14. And the successful adaptation of Jane Eyre which went on stage at the Guthrie Theatre will reopen again on March 8. On April, BBC4 will broadcast Judith Adams's Monsieur, I Believe I Have Genius.

And there are a few things that might or might not see the light in 2008. Will the re-think of Caird and Gordon's Jane Eyre The Musical go on stage before the end of the year? We certainly hope so, for we are rather curious. Will there be a new musical by Norman and Simon named Heathcliff? Will we hear the Wuthering Heights music project, Cime Tempestose in its Italian version, by Fabio Zuffanti? Will the Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen give birth to his own take on Wuthering Heights (Somewhere at Vimy)? And Sean Cannon's theatre play on the Brontë Irish origins? Will the ITV broadcast a brand new version of Emily Brontë's only novel? Or will the French channel FR3 do so instead? Will we watch the hard-to-imagine Brontë sitcom? Will we read Sheila Kohler's Brontë-inspired book? And Syrie James's? Siân Griffiths's novel Borrowed Horses? What about the always-to-be-done Brontë movie? Will it at least start actually shooting in 2008? Which will be the cast? Will Shirley make it onto the silver screen? And The Brontë Project? And ...?

At the end of these twelve months we will have all the answers and, we are sure, more questions regarding other future projects. In the meantime, we hope, we will have enjoyed a very Brontë year.

Categories: Biography, Books, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Shirley, Theatre,Wuthering Heights