The Anne Brontë biography debacle

The Wall Street Journal publishes a book excerpt from the forthcoming book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows:

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….
As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

And where is the Brontë connection here? Well, apparently among the books by Juliet Ashton there is a (not very succesful) biography of Anne Brontë:

In the meantime, I am very happy Stephens & Stark is making money on Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War. It relieves my conscience over the debacle of my Anne Brontë biography.

The Independent publishes an obituary of the Ulster poet Robert Greacen (1920-2008). Quoting from his poem "Sunday in County Monaghan" (Carnival at the River, 1990) we find this nice Brontë mention:

A stroll across the townland.
Brontë pages skimmed under the elm,
Tea in Belleek china, ginger snaps, . . .
The twilit fields with cousin Jane,
A collie bark from Kelly's yard.

One of the participants on the live discussion with Michael Dirda, book world columnist from The Washington Post finds Brontë references in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken:

In fact, at your suggestion, my wife and I are reading Joan Aiken's The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and really liking it. It has a very Bronte-esque quality.

Business World reviews Stephenie Meyer's trilogy (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse) and, as usual, highlights the Wuthering Heights references:

Leave it to a literature degree-holder to borrow sentiments from Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Emily Bronte, and a member of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints to create something moral without belaboring the hell vs. heaven point, retaining "old-fashioned" notions about love and marriage while making the novels sexy and contemporary (there are no pre-marital sex, even though the editors asked, but there are enough make-out scenes to fluster readers). In this setting, much more is left to choice than chance: whether you’re a vampire, werewolf or human, even thrust in a situation beyond your control, what you decide to do with the choices you’re given could be your undoing or salvation. (Johanna D. Poblete)

Harriet Devine's Blog reviews Justine Picardie's Daphne:

(...) But nonetheless I found this book pretty rivetting. I am a sucker for anything to do with academics and research, and I liked the fact that Justine Picardie had based most of the Daphne/Symington plot on actual fact and that the letters she quotes between them are real letters. Nicely done. I must say, though, that these two peoples' lives become almost unbearably painful -- I could hardly bring myself to read about poor Symington, who really is in a dreadful state. All jolly good stuff, and well worth a read.

Categories: Books, Brontëites, References