Brontë Parsonage needs to pack a “harder punch”

The Yorkshire Post resumes the story of the Brontë Society's inner debate.

A film-maker and a retired deputy headteacher are planning to help “modernise” a Yorkshire literary society by taking on unpaid leadership roles - just six months after they were branded “agitators”.
John Thirlwell, a film producer/director, and Janice Lee, a former deputy head, are seeking election to the ruling council of the Brontë Society.
The pair, who both live in Yorkshire, hit the headlines last year when they and 50 disgruntled members forced an extraordinary general meeting of the Society after claiming it had “lost its way”
In September they called on the ruling council to step aside “to bring greater levels of professionalism and experience to the Society.”
They said the Society needed fresh, modernising leadership to replace those who were “micro-managing” the Brontë Parsonage Museum, owned by the Society.
In October they were criticised by outgoing chairman Christine Went as “agitators” who were “behaving irresponsibly” in seeking power for themselves.
Six months later Mr Thirlwell and Mrs Lee are seeking election to the ruling council.
It is understood that at least five of the 12 council members are due to stand down at the annual meeting in June.
And it now emerged that the Brontë Society was so worried about a lack of Council nominees that it took legal advice on relaxing the rules to allow people to stand after being members for less than two years. (Read more)
 (Andrew Robinson)

The Telegraph finds Cathy knowledgeable on the subject of sex not being 'key to a happy marriage'.

However, to pretend all marriages continue to blaze on a high flame for several decades is to wilfully ignore everything we’ve learned about human life from evidence and literature. Surely most people are aware that libido (or hydraulics) can fail, and there can be other – often more profound – levels of connection than sex?
This is surely what Cathy expresses is Wuthering Heights when she says: “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” Many a married person will recognise that sense of always carrying the other with you. Just as a few, rather more unconventional ones will feel their level of connectedness makes possessiveness irrelevant. (Rowan Pelling)

KNOE.com recalled that yesterday marked the anniversary of the premiere of Wuthering Heights in 1939. Andalucía Información (Spain) finds a Brontëite in young writer Silvia Ibáñez Cambra. Little Echoez posts about Anne Brontë. The Indiependent reviews Jane Eyre.