The literary north

The Guardian's Northerner Blog has an article on the many - and widely varied - literary connections of the north of England.

Living in West Yorkshire it's easy to get a false impression of how The North – those capital letters are deliberate – is represented in literature. Within a ten mile radius I'm reminded of the enduring legacy of the Brontë sisters, the work of Sylvia Plath who is buried nearby or the omnipresent Ted Hughes, whose stanzas seems to document every footpath or landmark I come across. (Ben Myers)

One more example of said literary connections is Imelda Marsden's letter to the Mirfield Reporter about a recent local event:

On Saturday morning there was the unveiling of the Luddite statue at Sparrow Park, Liversedge. The Spen Valley Civic Society had worked very hard over six years to create this, so well done to them. The Rev Patrick Brontë would have been proud of them.
The invited guests then went to the reception at the Shears pub where the Luddites had met to plan their attacks in 1812. Well done to the landlord Paul Black and his staff, who were dressed in costume, and their Luddite beer.
On Saturday afternoon we were at Holly Bank school (formerly Roe Head where the Brontë sisters had attended) in Mirfield where I presented two talks with a difference. One was with William Cartwright, aka David Pinder dressed as Cartwright, the Rawfolds mill owner, about his mill being attacked by the Luddites. After the interval the next speaker, who was supposed to talk about Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, which features the Luddites’ attacks, was held up at Skipton Castle, so retired teacher Barbara Lumb came to the rescue and talked about the novel. Barbara’s book on the Spen Valley is to come out later this year. A descendant of the Rev Patrick Brontë’s sister, Sarah, was present.

The Telegraph and Argus shows how the planned tax on heritage buildings renovations may 'risk damaging communities across the district'.

John Huxley, chairman of the Haworth Future Committee, said it had so far raised £80,000 – and still needs £34,000 – for restorations at the Grade II-listed Haworth Parish Church where Charlotte and Emily Brontë are buried.
He said that when the 20 per cent VAT rise is brought in, the church could face paying £36,000 in extra tax and that the group was “watching the situation closely.”
Mr Huxley said: “Quite clearly, it could have a massive impact on us if we were unable to recover the full amount of VAT.” (Marc Meneaud)

Anyone wishing to help prevent this may sign a petition online here.

The Independent has an obituary on Robert Fuest where his Wuthering Heights is briefly mentioned:

The same year, for AIP, he made a condensed version of Wuthering Heights (1970), using authentic Yorkshire locations. (Gavin Gaughan)

According to its official blog, the Maryland Film Festival (May 3-6) will be screening Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.

The Minnesota Public Radio News features the Guthrie Theater.

When Dylan Hicks wrote his piece for the City Pages back in 2003, a survey of the past ten seasons found that only 10 percent of the plays (7 out of 70) on Guthrie's stages were by women.
Today, a similar look back at the number of female playwrights in the Guthrie Theater's last ten seasons, as listed on the theater's own website, finds it staged 111 shows, 18 of which were written by women (that's counting two plays based on the novels of Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen).
That means that in the past decade, 16.2 percent of the plays were written by women.
At this rate, women will make up 50 percent of the playwrights by the year 2036. (Marianne Combs)

Journey Keeper posts about Jane Eyre.