'Protect our heritage'

Yet another letter written to the Spenborough Guardian about the proposal for closing down and selling off Red House.

I am appalled at the possible closure of Red House Museum in September.
Red House is the only museum in the Spen Valley. It is so named because it is built in red brick, differing from the stone properties which are more typical of the area.
It was built in 1660 by William Taylor, whose family owned it until 1920.
Charlotte Brontë often visited Mary Taylor and the Taylor family of Red House featured as the Yorkes of Briarmains in her novel Shirley.
Red House is an award-winning museum and features in Simon Jenkins’s book England’s Thousand Best Houses.
The museum receives visitors from all over the world, it is a beautiful Georgian building with stained glass windows, stone flagged kitchen and the restored 1830s gardens provide an enchanting setting for the house.
Inside the old barn an exhibition explains Charlotte Brontë’s connection with the Spen Valley, the museum’s shop provides books, toys, gifts and presents and is well worth a family visit.
Please protect our heritage and keep the Red House Museum open. (John Appleyard)

Remember that you can still sign the Save Red House petition.

Also locally, the Yorkshire Post reports that,

Yorkshire’s film industry is to receive a £15m boost to help it continue to be one of the leading regions in movie production and create hundreds more jobs.
The £15m fund, half of which will come from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and half from the private sector, will be announced this morning. The funding will be available to invest in film and television production as well as in the games and digital sector.
The money provides a boost to one of the biggest success stories of Yorkshire industry in recent years. The King’s Speech, This is England, Four Lions and Wuthering Heights were all filmed in the region, which employs 113,000 people in the creative and digital industries. (Nick Ahad)

A couple of websites review the release of The Brontës of Haworth DVD. ICv2:

Although its production values can’t be compared with Downton Abbey, The Brontës of Haworth (Acorn Media, 260 min., $39.99) miniseries, which aired back in 1973 and exhibits the technical deficiencies of its era, has an advantage—its story is the real life tragic saga of the Brontë family, whose literary talents were as formidable as their fates were tragic.  Poet and playwright Christopher Fry does an excellent job of distilling the Brontë family history, and the strong cast headed by a young Michael Kitchen as Branwell Brontë is simply superb in this series that still has the power to delight literate audiences. (Tom Flinn)

And Blogger News Network:

The Brontës of Haworth is a finely crafted portrait that explores the soaring artistic achievements and personal tragedies of England’s most accomplishes literary family. The drama is a sensitive exploration of the Brontës tender and tragic family history. Although it has never aired in the U.S. on TV, the miniseries did air in the U.K. in 1973. (Jan Barrett)

And Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy is also the subject of a couple of reviews today. The Seattle Times:

Could Charlotte Brontë possibly have had an inkling of how the orphan child of her imagination would capture so many hearts? The legacy of "Jane Eyre," Brontë's 1847 novel of a young woman alone in the world who movingly finds love, continues to live on, most recently in Margot Livesey's novel "The Flight of Gemma Hardy." Though it's set more than a century later than Brontë's novel — we first meet Gemma as a child in the late 1950s, with most of the action taking place in the 1960s — it's yet another revisiting, and another homage, to Brontë's story. And yes, it works, so much so that this longtime "Jane Eyre" fan — though initially skeptical — couldn't put it down.
As we meet Gemma, she's an unloved orphan living in the home of her aunt in Perthshire, Scotland. Her parents — an Icelandic father and Scottish mother — died in Iceland when Gemma was very small; her kind uncle, a minister, is also gone. Those who know "Jane Eyre" settle in comfortably in the early pages, as we know exactly what's coming next: years at a miserable boarding school; a post as governess in a far-away, remote estate; an unexpected love affair with the brooding, mysterious master of the house; fleeing that love when his dark secret is revealed; devastation, loneliness and quiet recovery; and finally, the return of love, in a most unexpected way. [...]
And Gemma herself takes hold of the book — and the reader — as both a nod to her predecessor and her own vivid creation. More forthright and daring than the nineteenth-century Jane could dare be, she's a survivor who, in her own words, "was prepared to go to almost any lengths to get what I wanted." What she wants is a sense of home — an understanding of her place in the world — and when she finally finds it, not with a "Reader, I married him" but with a new sense of freedom and possibility, it's thoroughly satisfying. With "The Flight of Gemma Hardy," you sense that you're in the hands of a master storyteller — and that, quite possibly, Brontë herself might have approved. (Moira Macdonald)

And Fiction Examiner:

Margot Livesey’s The Flight of Gemma Hardy is a modern homage to one of my favorite novels, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Icelandic born Gemma first loses her mother, then her father, before being taken to Scotland by her doting uncle. Jane’s daunting Lowood School becomes Gemma’s Claypoole. Only Claypoole closes early and a young, bright Gemma must make her own way in the world before she will be able to afford to attend college. She takes a job as an au pair in the remote Orkney Islands working for Mr. Sinclair. Just as in Jane Eyre, their relationships blossoms into something more. However, on their wedding day, secrets are revealed and Gemma flees.
This book is a modern gothic romance; Jane Eyre in the 1960’s if you will. While I sincerely liked this book, I did not love it the way I love Jane Eyre [...]. The relationship between Gemma and Mr. Sinclair did not progress as naturally as between Jane and Mr. Rochester and thus seemed a little forced. However, comparisons aside, this is an excellent stand alone novel and a fascinating tale of misfortune and perseverance. (Rory O'Connor)

A local likes and recommends the Brontës in the Bowling Green Daily News and a librarian recommends April Lindner's Jane in The Orange County Register:

AN UPDATED CLASSIC
“Jane,” by April Lindner (Little, Brown)
For readers – especially teenage readers – who might be interested in Charlotte Brontë's famous work but cannot adjust to its Victorian English or who prefer to keep their romance novels under the 400-page count, I highly recommend “Jane” by April Lindner, published in 2010. This contemporary retelling of “Jane Eyre” was authored by a high school creative writing instructor who clearly understands the heart and spirit of Brontë's classic and who, I feel, is talented enough to present the plot to young adults in a manner that not only keeps true to the overall story line but quite nicely echoes its powerful, distinct flavor.
Transport Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre forward a few centuries, breathe modernity into their circumstances, and it's quite natural to see him in the role of a famous rock star with a very troubled past and her working as a nanny, slipping her way into his heart with all her self-contained passion and wisdom.
– Recommended by Nicole Orth, O.C. Public Libraries

Les Soeurs Brontë writes in French about Anne. Mostly Movies reviews Jane Eyre 2011 and Atlanta Theater Fans reviews Jane Eyre The Musical on stage at The Legacy Theatre.