A debt of gratitude

In the midst of its inner 'wars', a reader of Keighley News thinks that the Brontë Society is owed a 'debt of gratitude'.

The Brontë Society owes a debt of gratitude to those early founding fathers of the society, for their dedication to ‘promoting and commemorating the lives, times, literature and art’ of the Brontë family – Brontë Society chairman steps down due to health (Keighley News, October 9).
Those early stalwarts used to meet in a room above what was the butcher’s shop above what is now the information centre, at the top of Main Street in Haworth.
In 1928, the then Parochial Church Council declared, in modern parlance, Patrick Brontë’s Parsonage was no longer ‘fit for purpose’, and put it up for sale. To our internal gratitude, the Parsonage was purchased by a wealthy benefactor who, having applied for trust status, gifted the Parsonage to the existing members of the Brontë Society, who by law immediately become trustees. We are therefore bound by law to ‘maintain and care for the Parsonage, to hold in trust in perpetuity’ (forever).
It should now be seen and appreciated that since 1928, Brontë Society members worldwide are now trustees of the Brontë Parsonage Trust. We therefore own the Parsonage and every thing in it. We can’t sell it, can’t give it away and, more importantly, no one can take it away from us. John Thirlwell and his ‘co-conspirators’ are in breach of trust law in attempting to do so.
Somewhere along the line, the Parsonage was granted charity status, readily granted by an ‘arm’ of the government, called the Charity Commission, in order (as I see it) to avoid the thousands of charities springing up all over the country from applying for grants for various causes.
So now we have become The Brontë Parsonage Charity Trust. A stand-alone entity responsible for raising our own funds as non-paid members. We trustees cannot pay ourselves for any services rendered, though we can pay for accountancy work etc. Charity Law forbids remunerated employees from having any control over the trust’s governance. Thus any attempt at any sort of takeover by our own employees renders them liable for instant dismissal on those grounds.
We can, by law, employ staff to carry out some duties that may need a full-time operative, such as clerical work, but such numbers must be kept to a minimum to keep costs down.
All this information should therefore stop those spurious efforts by Mr Thirlwell and co dead in the water, and any continuation of his destruction of our Brontë Parsonage Charity Trust is a total waste of time and effort, as we have charity law and trust law on our side!
Go Home Mr Thirlwell, you can’t win.
TONY HOLMES
Kirkby-in-Ashfield

Still locally, the Keighley News also reports that the 'Black Bull in Haworth now the centre of a vibrant music scene' and also that 'Councillors apply for community asset status for Haworth's Royal Oak pub to try and block Tesco bid':

Council vice chairman, councillor Angel Kershaw, explained that if the application to Bradford Council is successful the parish council would have have the right to be consulted in the event of the pub being sold off.
She said if the pub is put up for sale councillors would then have six months to suggest alternative ways of retaining the premises as a community asset.
"The Royal Oak has been allowed to become run down," she said. "It's quite obvious that the people who own it have not invested in it.
"We would like the brewery to sell it to another brewery that is interested in it, or to invest money and bring it up to scratch.
"Its location by the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway means it could be a brilliant place. The pub dates back to before the 1850s and we know it was there at the time of the Brontës.
"We very much want it to continue as a centre for community gatherings.
"It's the only pub left on that side of the village. If it goes then people who aren't physically fit enough to get up the hill to the other side of Haworth will be left without a local pub."
Tesco's plans to turn the pub into a convenience store have encountered strong opposition from local people and councillors.
One of its applications, which would have involved locating a cash machine on the outside of the building, was rejected by Bradford planners earlier this month. (Oct) Worth Valley Ward Councillor Rebecca Poulsen said this cash machine would have been in a "ridiculous and dangerous" location.
Tesco has argued that a convenience store in the building would create 20 jobs, boost economic regeneration and bring extra trade to Mill Hey. (Miran Rahman)

The Irish Times lists '10 fictional characters who are given a novel of their own'. One of which is:

Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Jean Rhys
Wide Sargasso Sea acts as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, told from the perspective of the madwoman in the attic. Rhys reimagines the voice of the beautiful and fragile Antoinette Cosway, years before she is shipped to England to start her new life as Bertha Rochester. (Sarah Gilmartin)

The Times publishes the obituary of the author Mary Cadogan (1928-2014):

"I used to devour the Magnet and the Schoolgirl avidly in the 1930s... at the same time as I was devouring the works of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and Anne Sewell", she recalled. "It never struck me then, or now, that there was anything fundamentally in opposition about these two types of reading".

Spanish writer Santiago Posteguillo speaks in Las Provincias (Spain) about the suffering of Charlotte Brontë and what she turned it into:

Pero pese a sus diferencias, bajo todos los escritores incluidos en el libro subyace la presencia común de la sangre, "ya sea física o metafórica". Y ha puesto como ejemplo el sufrimiento de Charlotte Brontë, quien "tuvo la genialidad de reconvertirlo, en lugar de en soledad, en una obra maestra como 'Jane Eyre'", ha observado. (Translation)

La plana al día (Spain) thinks that Tennyson's Enoch Arden follows in the footsteps of Wuthering Heights.

Enoch Arden es una historia de amor. Una historia total que sigue la senda de Wuthering Heights (Cumbres borrascosas), publicada por Emily Brontë casi veinte años antes, en 1847. (Translation)

According to Closer Magazine (France), Isabelle Adjani, who played Emily in André Téchiné's Les Soeurs Brontë, considers Isabelle Huppert, who played Anne, her rival.

L'autre Isabelle, sa sœur Brontë détestée, sa rivale de toujours. (Coralie Vincent) (Translation)

Vasabladet (Sweden) thinks that Wuthering Heights is one of the best fall reads. A columnist from La Jornada (Mexico) speaks about her love of books and mentions reading the Brontës. The Times makes a list of Gothic art, music... and Wuthering Heights seems to be in. alasdaircboswell.blog reviews Jane Eyre 2011. Booked til Tuesday reviews Ironskin by Tina Connolly. thatgirlwiththenovel posts about Jane Eyre.