In 2014, The Brontës and Animals

Keighley News talks about last Monday's celebrations of the 120th birthday of the Brontë Society (more pictures of the celebration here):

A literary society – believed to be the earliest in the English-speaking world – is celebrating its 120th birthday.
A special cake marking the Brontë Society milestone was produced for visitors to the Parsonage museum in Haworth on Monday.
Professor Ann Sumner, the society’s executive director, said: “We wish all our members a very happy 120th birthday.
“It was wonderful to see so many visitors on Monday, who enjoyed our cake.
“We are delighted the society is flourishing, and are looking forward to a year of exciting activity to mark the special anniversary.
“We have a long and fascinating history, as well as great opportunities ahead – we celebrate the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë in 2016.”
More than 50 people attended the first meeting in Bradford of the Brontë Society, which now has members across the world.
A national programme of special activities marking the anniversary – including lectures, panel discussions and pop-up activities – will be launched at an event in London on February 19.

Sarah Browncross, the Brontë Society's communications officer, gives details in The Telegraph & Argus of the Brontë Parsonage Festive Season and some glimpses of what 2014 will bring:

So far, we have got grungy at the Steampunk Weekend, we added a bit of sparkle at the Fairy Weekend and we travelled back to Christmas past with the Victorian Weekend.
Charlotte Cory curated a Visitorian Christmas Eve and Visitorian Christmas Day event on December 6 and 7, in conjunction with her much-talked-about Capturing The Brontës exhibition.
And we also hosted our very first Brontë carol service at Haworth Parish Church, with lessons read by the High Sheriff of West Yorkshire, the chairman and executive director of the Brontë Society, and artist Charlotte Cory. And it wasn’t over then!
We had a fun decorations and stories weekend on Saturday and Sunday, where people could make up their own Christmas decorations and wreaths to deck their halls with.
Aside from all the yuletide festivities, we had something else to celebrate this winter.
The Brontë Society celebrated its 120th birthday on Monday with cake for the visitors.
A reminder to let you know the Heaven Is A Home and Capturing The Brontës exhibitions will be ending on December 31.
The museum will be closed throughout January, during which time we will be busy taking care of the collections and setting up our new exhibitions.
The museum will re-open in February 2014, with a brand new exhibition in the Bonnell Room – The Brontës And Animals.
The Parsonage and the exhibition room will also have some new objects on display, as well as the old favourites. We look forward to seeing you then!
We have in stock some lovely Brontë Christmas cards, and beautiful ceramic decorations created especially for us by artist Rachel Lee. In the meantime, remember our shop is open 10am to 4.50pm, and on Sundays from 11am to 4.50pm, to give you extra time to do your Christmas shopping.
Our star buys include Brontë-inspired jewellery designed by Altered Eras, and Charlotte Cory’s ‘snip-n-sew’ Visitorian dolls. Pop into our shop or take a look at our website to buy online.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum wishes you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing you all again in February.

Andrew Collins selects the best movies on UK TV this Christmas for Radio Times:

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (Mon 23, BBC2) gets a suitably windswept rendition, complete with rolling moors, Mia Wasikowska as the demure heroine and Michael Fassbender as a lean, mean Rochester.

The Gloucestershire Echo has some problems with the authorship of the novel:

Jane Eyre (2011). Big budget retelling of Jane Austen's novel.

The Stoke Sentinel and The Times also mention the Monday broadcast. A film, by the way, loved by dreamofjeannie .

The same Jane that the writer Antonio Garrido lists in The Huffington Post as "a Woman in Classic Novels Who Rebelled Against Their Time Periods":

Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë): Jane seeks independence, something essentially unheard of for a Victorian woman. She doesn't consider marrying Rochester until after inheriting her own money, becoming financially independent. She also refuses to marry her cousin because of the way he treats her, again asserting her independence.

The Sunday Book Review Editor's Choice of the New York Times includes

A True Novel, by Minae Mizumura. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. (Other Press, $29.95.) Adapting “Wuthering Heights” to postwar Japan creates a study of cultural borrowing.

According to The Telegraph & Argus:

The organisation responsible for promoting the South Pennines is encouraging people to step out using its walking routes.
Pennine Prospects has devised a number of routes across the region, including several on the moors above Haworth, Oxenhope, Silsden, and Riddlesden.
The website walkridesouthpennines.co.uk also features many cycling and horse riding routes in the same wild landscapes of Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
In addition, Pennine Prospects is publicising special events over the Christmas and New Year period.

The writer Valerie Wood talks about how she became an author in the Yorkshire Post:

I read anything and everything, and then discovered Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women. I didn’t know then that I was reading literature. I only knew that this was the best book I had ever read and I’m quite sure that I was highly influenced by it, not only in my own writing much later, but by moving on to reading other classics, not, I hasten to add, as in reading Classics at university; that wasn’t to be my metier, but to Dickens, Austen and the Brontës.

Observation Deck on Samantha Shannon's The Bone Season:

But the more reviews I read online, including Annalee's take, the less of a sure thing it sounded, and once it became apparent that the novel was a sort of fanfic mashup of steampunk, Harry Potter, X-Men, and Jane Eyre, with a dash of Philip Pullman, the more ehhh it sounded.

Female First interviews another author Anna Maria Athanasiou:

Who are your favourite authors?
I have a list and all very diverse from Enid Blyton to the Brontës and Jane Austen, George Orwell to Paulo Coehlo, Dan Brown to Jeffrey Archer, Tolkin to Stephanie Meyer... the list goes on. (Interview by Lucy Walton)

Politiken (Denmark) talks about fan fiction and mentions the Brontës as pioneers:

Der findes også real person fiction, hvor fans skriver fiktion om eksisterende personer. Et af de tidligste eksempler på dette var Brontë-søstrene, der som børn øvede sig på at skrive ved at opdigte historier, hvor hertugen af Wellington og hans to sønner havde hovedrollerne. (Translation)

Der Westen Waz (Germany) reviews the novel  Erwin, Mord & Ente by Thomas Krüger:

Der Natur seines Titelhelden nach nimmt „Erwin, Mord & Ente“ sehr, sehr langsam Fahrt auf. Aber die Sache mit dem Dorftrottel erweist sich mehr und mehr als Tarnung eines Sonderlings. Trotzdem muss man schon ein gewisses Faible für die punktgenau getroffene Ostwestfalen-Atmosphäre, die „Wuthering Heights“ von Emily Brontë und detektivische Laufenten mitbringen, um hier nicht aus der Spur zu geraten. (Jens Dirksen) (Translation)

Tribuna Hoje (Brazil) thinks that Leila (from the local soap opera Amor à vida) should read Wuthering Heights:

Another would have solved the problems would be Leila, as in "Wuthering Heights" learned as a woman with disputes in the world can resurface as a ghost and haunt your life (does Cathy also refused to cut his hair, causing a fury of Emily Brontë '). In fact, not have to go very far, it was only to see the Globo soap operas to know how high are the chances of a ghostly apparition of the deceased can come bother you. (Translation)

The Huffington Post compiles some really bad Amazon reviews for classic books including Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights; Via the Brontë Sisters, pictures of the Haworth Torchlight parade (on Mark Davis Facebook wall); more pictures, now from the Brontë Bell Chapel Carols by Candlelight event.