Channeling Charlotte Brontë in Tasmania

A press release from the Tasmanian Government includes an unexpected and intriguing Brontë-related TV project:

The Minister for Economic Development, Michael Aird, today announced two successful projects from the Screen Tasmania and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation co-development initiative.
Mr Aird said that the joint initiative aims to develop two children’s drama series from concept stage, with at least one moving into production as a long-running children’s television series produced in Tasmania.
“On behalf of Screen Tasmania and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation I would like to congratulate writer Tim Logan, co-writer Shaun Wilson and producer Nathan Spencer of Sky Machine on their project Travellers, and writer Vicki Madden and co-writer Paul Goddard on their project Channeling Charlotte Bronte. (...)
Channeling Charlotte Bronte tells the story of the brilliant, quirky, dysfunctional Bronte family – only this family isn’t from nineteenth century Yorkshire – they’re living in twenty-first century Hobart.

The North-West Evening Post interviews Kay Woodward, author of Jane Airhead:

“But my all-time favourite book was Jane Eyre, and that’s what my first novel is based on.”
Jane Airhead is a story about a young girl who is obsessed with the classic Charlotte Brontë novel. Kay insists that it isn’t autobiographical.
She says: “My friends that have read it say they can see quite a bit of me in the book, but it isn’t really based on myself at all.
“It is about a girl who draws parallels with Jane Eyre and her own life – she tries to find a Mr Rochester-type man for her mum.”

The Financial Times reviews Petra Borner's cover for the recent White's Books edition of Jane Eyre:

This cover comes from White’s Books, one of a small number of independent publishers fighting a rearguard action against the looming digital future by producing books that demand to be not just read, but touched and held. Their Jane Eyre is a gorgeous thing, its dramatic cover design wrapping around the spine to the back, all printed on cloth-bound board.
The creative half of White’s Books is David Pearson, the designer behind the hugely successful Penguin Great Ideas series, as well as the new look for Cormac McCarthy’s backlist at Picador – both series foregrounding typography rather than illustration.
Pearson doesn’t design most of White’s covers himself, but instead calls in some intriguing names, such as the textile designer Celia Birtwell and Stanley Donwood, best known for his work with Radiohead.
For Jane Eyre, he has turned to the London-based Swedish artist Petra Borner. Borner’s work often features flowers. She is a perfect match for White’s Books’ aesthetic, which stresses what Pearson calls “non-repeating narrative pattern” – almost a pattern, but not quite. Here, that takes the form of a rose garden that on first glance seems full of splendid blooms, but which hides a multitude of thorns. In Borner’s words, “the cover illustration aims to capture Jane’s state of mind as her wedding to Rochester is interrupted ... a midsummer frost of chilling winds drifts through the garden, crushing the blowing roses, laying a frozen shroud.”
Borner made the design by cutting and layering paper, which gives it a bold and distinctive look. The book seems larger than life, especially when compared to the usual insipid paperback versions, often featuring an image of a mournful-looking woman on their cover. This is a far more vital response to Brontë’s gothic masterpiece. (Jonathan Gibbs)

The Charlotte Observer reviews Elizabeth Gilbert's Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage:

So, amid a less-than-encouraging history of marriage, does Gilbert find her comfort zone? She does, and from a rather unlikely source. Not to go all Charlotte Bronte on you, but: Reader, she marries him. And just as it was in "Eat, Pray, Love," the journey is one that entertains and illuminates. (Colette Bancroft)

Nick's Flick Picks reviews Jane Eyre 1944 and Popped Density does the same with Wuthering Heights 1939. -Maybe- posts about Jane Eyre and Leituras das Marias about Wuthering Heights both in Portuguese. Welcome to my World has posts on Jane Eyre 1983 and 2006, in French. Finally, a poisoned gift: a cocktail recipe devoted to Anne Brontë (!). On The Drinks Diva: an Alcoholic Sherbert Delight.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Illustrations, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Wuthering Heights