Cathy, the scream queen

The latest newsletter on Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP website talks about books in winter, including the actress's own preferences. Number one is:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

This was the first novel I ever read. Actually, it was read to me by my mother. We started it when I was 10 years old. The novel starts out with a young Jane, about the age I was at the time, so I was drawn in, in such a visceral way. It was the moment I really started to understand, from my little bed in a room with strawberry wallpaper, that there was a scope to the world, a past and future, that would be there for the learning and for the taking. It was a powerful and deep experience, being read those words, that story with all of its heavy imagery and emotion.

Varsity (Cambridge University's student newspaper) talks to Penguin Designer Coralie Bickford-Smith, the designer of these editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights:

When I arrive, a mass of hardbacks and paperbacks are spread across the table: a fuchsia Treasure Island the colour of a Ladurée macaroon, a dove-grey Wuthering Heights with thistles twining across the cover, a pile of Gothic Horrors decked out in sinister shades of yellow, and a sumptuous three-volume set of The Arabian Nights that would make Sir Richard Burton weep. (Laura Freeman)

The Galway City Tribune (Ireland) publishes an article about singer Albert Niland, mentioning his cover of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:

These days Niland, who is best known in this country for his soulful version of the Kate Bush classic Wuthering Heights, is based in Belgium and plays regularly across Europe. (Roisin Dubh)

We don't really think Zoe Tapper, from Demons, can be considered a Brontëite but this is one of the most curious Brontë-related memories we have ever reported. Cathy, the scream queen:

“I’m far more scared of supernatural horror films, ghosts and stuff. I was terrified for years of dark windows after watching the old black and white film of Wuthering Heights as a child, and that image of Cathy at the window. I couldn’t wash up in front of my dark kitchen window at all.” (Ian Wylie in Manchester Evening News)

The Independent mentions the Tamasha Theatre production of Wuthering Heights:

Purists may splutter, but the Brontë Society has given its approval to a "Bollywood"-style production of Emily Brontë's 'Wuthering Heights' according to its creator and ex-'East-Ender' Deepak Verma. The show, to be staged by the theatre company Tamasha from April, is "relevant to the British Asian experience", says Verma, who adds: "The Brontë Society are looking forward to the production. It's a Victorian novel, but the same values still exist in Indian culture."(Arifa Akbar)

Caralyn Green in the Philadelphia Weekly is very confused about where to look for love advice:

I mean, we heed the words of Austen, Brontë, Shakespeare and their ilk when it comes to matters of love and manners and melancholy.

Erm... yes, Heathcliff and Cathy are surely the best of examples. Incidentally, You've GOTTA read this! and Books and Movies maintain an interesting dialogue about the first half of Emily Brontë's novel. Lyenesz's Site and Trish Reads have also read and reviewed the book.

John Burke's a-Musings posts about a visit to Wycoller Hall (possible basis Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre), The Quillcards Blog talks about the Brontë Parsonage's behind... the Parson's Field, bbc_fan publishes a post about Jane Eyre 2006, Peão posts about Jane Eyre in Portuguese (particularly Paula Rego's paintings) and The Ambiguities is reading Villette.

Finally, a Wuthering Heights reference on a rugby National One match chronicle:

Indeed they did, so much so in fact it is a miracle they didn’t end up wandering across the rain-lashed, frost-kissed moors all Wuthering Heights-like wailing about just how cruel life can be. (Brian Dick in the Birmingham Post)

Categories: Brontëana, Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Villette, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights