Gordon Brown's hinterland and Mills & Boon's parents

After reading this from The Independent you will be saying out loud, 'not again!'

Literary purists will always have reservations about the books as literature with their repetitive plots, two-dimensional characters and gender stereotyping but as a product they are hard to fault, with an annual UK turnover of around 20m. Their example, believes [Clare] Somerville [Mills & Boon's marketing director], has informed more inventive romantic reads. "We're definitely the precursor to modern chick lit such as Bridget Jones, but we're also the child of Jane Austen and the Brontës." (Sophie Morris)

Everyone's free to claim they are someone's child, but the question is whether their DNA supports that. And in our opinion it totally does NOT. At most they are one of those distant relatives who know so little about the family matters that they are almost strangers.

Something else that will have you saying the same 'not again!' out loud is this from the Telegraph:

Gordon Brown does not strike me as a man with a hinterland. The way in which he drew on his school days and even his school motto as defining influences during an interview with Andrew Marr confirms he is in want of one (despite the clumsy quote from Conrad).
Plus he appeared rather confused about the character of Heathcliff earlier this year, when comparing himself to a literary figure - an error no one with a honed hinterland would make. (Emma Soames)

Onto new things now. And this - reported by The Asian News - sounds interesting:

Tamasha [a unique, intensive programme to find new British Asian voices for theatre] is currently developing a production of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, adapted for the stage as a Bollywood musical by Deepak Verma, in collaboration with Oldham Coliseum and in association with The Lyric Theatre Hammersmith for 2009.

From Tamasha's website:

Brontë goes to Bollywood in Tamasha's next major production: a vibrant new musical adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Deepak Verma (Ghostdancing).
This timeless love story, in which untamed passion collides with social class, makes a seamless transition to the harsh desert landscape of Rajasthan. Incorporating all the elements of classic Indian cinema, it promises to be a sumptuous show for theatregoers of all ages.
The show will tour nationally in Spring 2009.

We shall be looking forward to hearing more about this.

The New Republic quotes from Villette in a review of Love Today, a book by Maxim Biller.

Infatuation is accompanied by a rush in the throat. And for many, the rush is verbiage bubbling and broiling, eager to simmer over the lip and spill into even the most unrelated conversation.
This irritating loquaciousness has been noted in literature. Charlotte Bronte, for example, observed in Villette that "There is, in lovers, a certain infatuation of egotism; they will have a witness of their happiness, cost that witness what it may." And yet some of the most moving accounts of relationships are those that share the least. (Francesca Mari)

The quote is from chapter XXXVII, Sunshine.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review carries an article on bookclubs:

The passion for reading remains as they have crossed into their 70s. They've read classics and bestsellers, pulp novels and noted works of literature, Ernest Hemingway and John Grisham, Anita Shreve and Tim O'Brien, Jhumpa Lahiri and Taylor Caldwell, "In Cold Blood," "Wuthering Heights" and "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." (Regis Behe)

The Brussels Brontë Blog posts a nice link for those who speak Dutch:

Roel Jacobs, who was one of our speakers during our conference last April, is talking about the Brontës in Brussels, who feature in a program about foreigners in Brussels: “Bekende Buitenlanders in Brussel: de zusjes Brontë”. One can listen to this fragment and read more about it by clicking on this link: http://www.rvi.be/rvi_master/specials/rvi_specials_bbb_brontes/index.shtml

EDIT: A couple of alerts for today and tomorrow:

Some alerts taking place in the coming days:

Goffstown Public Library
2 High St. Goffstown, NH

Wednesday, Sept. 24 Book Discussion Group
This month’s selection is Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Please call us at 497-2102 for a copy of the book.
1:30 p.m., Third Floor Meeting Room

Tuscaloosa Public Library
1801 Jack Warner Parkway, Tuscaloosa, AL

Book discussion: 10 a.m. at the Tuscaloosa Public Library, 1801 Jack Warner Parkway discussion the book 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys. Free.
Call 205-345-5820.

Categories: Alert, Audio-Radio, Books, Brussels, Music, Theatre, Villette, Weirdo, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights