Jane Birkin wanted to play Branwell Brontë

Vogue (France) interviews Jane Birkin, who so wanted to be in Téchiné's Les Soeurs Brontës that she even asked to play Branwell.

Quand Téchiné tournait Les Soeurs Brontë, je lui avais demandé de jouer dans le film. Il m’a dit qu’il y avait déjà Isabelle Adjani, Isabelle Huppert et Marie – France Pisier, qu’il ne voyait pas de rôle pour moi. Je  voulais jouer le frère et les Brontë étaient anglais. Ce à quoi il m’a répondu :“Certes, mais je fais un film français.” Voilà, je n’ai pas toujours collé, je n’ai pas pu tout jouer. (Olivier Lalanne) (Translation)

Cumbria Crack reports a visit of MP Tim Farron to Sedbergh School Foundation.

In February Sedbergh School Foundation were awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), to preserve and provide access to the archive collection of Casterton School. As part of this December’s National Lottery #thankyou Week, the National Lottery invited Tim Farron to visit one of the ongoing projects in his constituency and it is a great honour that he chose to visit the Casterton School archive in Sedbergh.
The collection includes original documents recording the education of the Bronte sisters who were educated at the school in 1824 as well more recent items kindly donated by former staff and pupils of the school. Tim said; “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit at the Sedbergh School Archives. It was fascinating to see the history of this school, whose forward-looking approach gave girls, including the Brontë sisters, a greater opportunity to reach their potential at a time when they would be treated as second-class citizens. This exhibition plays an important role in keeping the school’s history alive and I’d encourage local people to pay a visit to explore how the school transformed the lives of young women in our area.” (Kirsty Stock)

This columnist from Journal Review writes about National Underdog Day, which is on Sunday.

There’s nothing more inspirational than a good book or movie about an underdog who rises to victory despite the odds stacked against them. They give us hope.
We have oodles of examples at our fingertips. Perhaps revisit “Jane Eyre,” by Charlotte Brontë; John Steinbeck’s, “Of Mice and Men,” or “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. If you prefer movies, we have an abundance of choices there as well. Check out Rocky (1976); Remember the Titans and Erin Brochovich (2000); or Cinderella Man (2005) to name just a few. (Gloria Wall)

Jewish Exponent reveals why writer Lynn Rosen usually reads books by women.´

“I tend to read books by women,” she said, recalling a moment in her freshman seminar in college in 1979 when her professor said they were going to only read books by women. She asked her students to think of the books they read in high school and how many of those were written by women (hint: with the exception of maybe some works by Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters, there probably weren’t many). (Marissa Stern)

InfoLibre (Spain) features poet Fernando Valverde, who has a poem inspired by Anne Brontë:

Hay dos poemas de Valverde que identifican la muerte con este proceso de viaje descendente. Uno es «La joven de Scarborough», inspirado en la figura de Ana Brontë (1820-1849), que relata el proceso de agonía de la poeta británica durante su tuberculosis fatal: «El blanco de su cuerpo en el abismo/ es amor y es deseo,/ el vuelo de los pájaros/ y también su caída». (Marisa Martínez Pérsico) (Translation)

You can read the whole poem here.

El País (Spain) features Venezuelan writer Yolanda Pantin, who loved Wuthering Heights in her teenage years.

Pantin, que confiesa que suspira y se sonroja con frecuencia, habla de Catalina Linton y de Heathcliff, de Cumbres borrascosas, cuando se le pregunta por sus lecturas de infancia. Y añade una sentencia envuelta en sombra: “Pero aquellas eran pasiones adolescentes. De cuando estaba viva la literatura”. ¿Ya no está viva la literatura? “Ahora no es literatura, es otra cosa. Pasó a ser parte de mi vida, pasó a ser algo más. (Jorge Morla) (Translation)

Elite Daily shares '26 Romantic Instagram Captions For Your First Anniversary Together' (sic!!), including a quote from Wuthering Heights.