A withering post

Reuters reports that YA novel Withering Tights by Louise Rennison has won the the award for the seven to 14-year-old category of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

Tallulah Casey, the main protagonist of Withering Tights is an awkward 14-year old who joins a performing arts school and starts to discover the delights and drawbacks of boys while comparing her fate to Cathy in Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights."
"This is a witty, wry, inside view of what it feels like to be a gawky, witty girl who knows what's going on around her, is detached enough to comment on it all, but carried along in the flow all the same," Rosen said. "There's a gag on every page with loads of funny situations and people." (Simon Falush, Paul Casciato)

This news comes as a breath of fresh air after the disillusion of this article from Indian Express:

For a generation that grew up reading Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Little Women, Sherlock Holmes, Catch 22 and Catcher In The Rye, it is a little disconcerting to know that their children are seeking out books that glorify the lives of blood-sucking vampires and teeth-bearing werewolves. (Aishwarya Rao)

And the NPR's Blog of the Nation jokes about how easy it is to find an essay on Wuthering Heights online:

And these aren't book reports on Wuthering Heights (who hasn't written that one? And if you're curious, Google it. You can have one of your very own in the time it takes to hit "Print."). (Sarah Handel)

The National Post has an article on a couple of biographies on Isabella Blow: Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion by Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Blow by Blow by Detmar Blow.

Detmar and Crowe agree on a few points, however: her love of Hilles, Detmar's ancestral home. Crowe says that Blow called it "Wuthering Heights on a withering budget." (Nathalie Atkinson)

BBC News reports that 18th-century historian Thomas Hinderwell has just been honoured with a blue plaque in Scarborough, his birthplace.

Thomas Hinderwell died in October 1825 and is buried in St Mary's graveyard, a short distance from the resting place of Anne Brontë.

There's one more 'coincidence' of sorts, as Thomas Hinderwell was born in a house in St Nicholas Cliff and Anne Brontë died in lodgings in St Nicholas Cliff.

On a similar note, the Scarborough Evening News reports the release of a book that will list the blue plaques in Scarborough, including even the one unveiled yesterday in Thomas Hinderwell's memory.

Further blue plaques include one at the Grand Hotel, in St Nicholas Cliff for writer Anne Brontë, with another in The Victoria, for actor Charles Laughton.

On the blogosphere, ScribbleManiac posts more pictures of North Lees Hall and The Darcy Review reviews April Lindner's Jane.

Categories: Anne Brontë, Books, References, Wuthering Heights