No Wuthering Heights for the boys

Writer CJ Daugherty argues in The Guardian's Children's books section that 'books should be gender free'.

Consider the fate of young people if they buy into this. Girls would never read F Scott Fitzgerald, JD Salinger, Hemingway, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Tolkien or Vonnegut. Most – if not all – classic Greek and Roman literature would be denied to them. And the Bible.
Boys would be forbidden anything by the Brontës – no Wuthering Heights for them! And they'd get to discover none of Virginia Woolf's post-World War I malaise. No Gertrude Stein to put the 1920s into perspective. No Agatha Christie, Harper Lee or Dorothy Parker. Boys would never read Frankenstein.

V3 interviews Anna Barsby, CIO of bike and car accessory retailer Halfords.

What was the last book you read and was it any good?
I am currently reading a series by Andrew Taylor, having loved his novel The American Boy. Two of my all-time favourites are Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. My favourite author is Kazuo Ishiguro. (Dan Worth)

El Mundo (Spain) shares the online Q&A they recently had with writer and documentary director Susana Koska.

Hola Susana, ¿cuáles han sido las influencias literarias que más han guiado tu libro, influencias de por aquí y extranjeras? gracias, besos, SuperKoska
Soy lectora voraz desde que aprendí a leer, pero en aquellos tiempos tendía a la tragedia, necesitaba palabras tremendas para los momentos tremendos, Vida y Destino, Dr Zivagho (sic), las Brontë, el novelón gótico...y las novelas negrísimas fueron mi consuelo. (Translation)

Also in Spain, Zoom News looks at successful first publications:

La época victoriana, de 1837 a 1901, fue pródiga en grandes primeras novelas. El mismo año en el que la joven reina Victoria de Inglaterra llegó al trono, Charles Dickens publicó Los papeles póstumos del Club Pickwick. Una década más tarde, aparecieron dos títulos firmados por las hermanas Charlotte y Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre y Cumbres borrascosas, respectivamente. Y sí, también eran sus primeras novelas. (José Luis Ibáñez Ridao) (Translation)

In the case of Charlotte, Jane Eyre was not exactly her first novel.

The Guardian reviews a stage production of Fever by Reza de Wet and is somewhat reminded of the Brontës by the plot.

Fever by the late Reza de Wet charts the isolation and fear of a Victorian governess who finds herself teaching in the dry, desert land of the Karoo. Through a diary posthumously discovered by her sister, Katy, we learn of Emma's sexual obsession with her widowed Boer employer and of her revulsion at his cruelty. Inevitably, one is reminded of Brontë novels such as Jane Eyre and Agnes Grey, and the play is clearly about the clash between a refined poetic sensibility and a boorish, as well as Boer-ish, brutality. (Michael Billington)

Top Withens is one of 'The UK’s best picnic spots' according to MSN Food.

Top Withens, Haworth, Yorkshire
Get your picnic at: Wilsons
The supposed site of Wuthering Heights, the ruins of Top Withens in Brontë country are satisfyingly romantic and can be tied in with a bracing walk.
When you’ve worked up an appetite, tuck into a pork pie from Leeds’ much-lauded Wilsons pie and pasty makers, established in the '80s by two brothers who were fifth-generation butchers. (Frankie Mullin)

While on the other side of the pond, The Oregonian is also reminded of Brontë country.

A sea of pink, white and dark red heather waves across 1 ½ acres of Bernie and Phyllis Lautenschlaeger's property in Otis, near the Salmon River in Lincoln County.
Although seven miles from the coast, the scene evokes thoughts of the rainswept British moors – Charlotte Brontë country to the literary minded. (Jane Eastman)

The Southern Daily Echo features a father and son team who will walk 1,216 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End for charity.

The route the father and son team are taking is a course through the most isolated, naturally beautiful landscapes in the country – past the foothills of Ben Nevis, within viewing distance of Loch Ness, in and out of Wales on the Offa’s Dyke path and through the famous brooding Brontë heaths of Wuthering Heights fame in Yorkshire.

The Anchorage Daily News offers a few tips to keep the bears away while hiking in the Alaska woods.

Another creative game that will generate conversation sure to drive away bears, and possibly hiking companions, is "Kiss, Kill, or Marry." First, a player offers three choices. Then other players choose whom they would kiss, kill, or marry. For example: Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, Laurie from Little Women, or Westley from Princess Bride. Kiss, kill, or marry?

If the goal is keeping the conversation going, saying you would marry Mr Rochester is quite the conversation opener.

She reads novels posts about Daphne Du Maurier's The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë. Unseen influences in our lives thinks that if the Brontë family's misfortunes were the result of a curse, Mary Burder would be the 'prime suspect'.What the Hell Shoud I Watch on Netflix? recommends Jane Eyre 2011.Words that Burn posts about Wuthering Heights.