Independent Spirit

The Pillar Portrait's return to Haworth in The Telegraph & Argus:

An iconic painting of the three Bronte sisters has returned to the Bronte Parsonage in Haworth for the first time in 34 years.
The portrait, by Branwell Bronte, has returned to the family home in time to mark the 200th anniversary of Emily’s birth. (...)
Ann Dinsdale, Principle Curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: “It’s a very special moment for us to welcome back this wonderful portrait. Visitors always ask questions about a copy that we have on display year-round at the museum and it feels fitting that the original painting has returned home to the Parsonage where it was painted, as part of our year-long celebrations around Emily’s birth.”
Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London added: “I grew up a few miles from Haworth, used to visit the Parsonage Museum often and look at the reproduction of Branwell Brontë’s portrait of his sisters and read that the original was in London, so I am absolutely delighted that the National Portrait Gallery is lending one of the treasures of its collection back to Haworth as part of the anniversary celebrations for Emily Brontë. This is a wonderful opportunity to see the portrait on display in the family home where it was painted for the first time since 1984.”
The return of the painting is just one of the events being held locally to celebrate the anniversary of Wuthering Heights author Emily. Yesterday a new exhibition celebrating her life and inspirations opened at South Square Gallery in Thornton - a short distance from the house the sisters and Branwell were born in. (Chris Young) 

One of the current exhibitions at the Brontë Parsonage Museum is described in the Yorkshire Post:

Wings of Desire, an exhibition of work by leading land artist Kate Whiteford, opened at the museum last week. Whiteford took as her starting point the little-known story of Emily’s Merlin hawk Nero. It is understood that she rescued the bird from the moor and cared for him at the Parsonage.
“Keeping a ferocious bird was an extraordinary thing for a young woman in the 19th century to do,” says Whiteford. “I felt that it was a way in to Emily’s writing and an insight into her character. I really liked the idea of her flying her hawk in that landscape and I thought of the hawk as a metaphor for ideas of escape, flight and the longing for liberty that comes through in Emily’s work, her poems in particular. So I wanted to do something that was a combination of images of birds of prey, Emily’s poetry and the landscape.”
Whiteford was also inspired by the watercolour of Nero by Emily which she saw during a visit to the museum. “She was a talented artist,” she says. “It is a beautiful painting and so well-observed.”
The centrepiece of the exhibition is Whiteford’s seven-minute film installation which is a very beautiful, powerful and moving tribute to Emily, her writing and her independent spirit. On a split screen the film presents evocative images of the moor in rain, sunlight and everything in between – “I was up there filming in all weathers,” says Whiteford – alongside shots of soaring hawks, close-ups of gravestones in Haworth cemetery, bird’s eye views of the landscape surrounding the Parsonage and the occasional glimpse of actress Chloe Pirrie, who played Emily in Sally Wainwright’s acclaimed TV drama about the Brontës To Walk Invisible, reading extracts of Emily’s poetry.
“I was delighted when Chloe said she was available,” says Whiteford. “I wanted a voice that would be instantly recognisable and that wonderful Yorkshire accent changes the reading of the poetry, you hear it differently.”
Pirrie’s readings are very powerful as is her rendition of the repeated refrain, taken from Wuthering Heights, ‘Let me in, let me in. I’m home, I’ve lost my way on the moor.’ The film’s soundtrack is a haunting folk-inspired piece entitled I Wish, I Wish by award-winning musicians The Unthanks which perfectly captures the mood of the film and its stirring theme, also present in Emily’s poetry, of an overwhelming desire to be free. The show also features a series of paintings on paper, inspired by birds of prey and archaeological features of the moor revealed through aerial photography.
For Whiteford the experience of working on the project has been hugely enjoyable. “I have loved it. Somehow by focussing on the hawks and through the film bringing the outside in to the Parsonage it made me feel closer to Emily and I began to understand her better both as a writer and a woman.” (Yvette Huddleston)

Keighley News presents a new upcoming biography of Emily Brontë: Claire O'Callaghan's Emily Brontë Reappraised:

Emily Brontë Reappraised, published on June 15 during the 200th anniversary year of the novelist’s birth, is described as a “biography with a twist”.
Dr O’Callaghan sets out to rehabilitate Emily, conjuring up an image of a woman who was simply ahead of her time. She argues against the conventional wisdom that Emily, Charlotte and Anne Brontë were the “three weird sisters”, with Emily being the weirdest of the lot.
Dr O’Callaghan said: “Over the years, Emily has been portrayed in many different ways, but it’s usually negative. In some biographical commentaries, she’s a staid, old-fashioned, people-hating spinster who roamed about the Yorkshire moors alone with her dog, or, alternately, a painfully shy and socially awkward girl-woman who was sick whenever she left home.
“Elsewhere, she’s a stubborn and defiant woman who willingly withheld assorted physical and mental ailments, or an ethereal soul too fragile to endure the real world.
“Seldom is she kind, and in most, she’s a superior intellect, a genius unable or unwilling to participate in ‘normal’ society. With such eccentric images, it’s no wonder that Emily is still perceived today as ‘no normal being’.”
Dr O’Callaghan argues that this derogatory view of Emily has its roots in the account of her offered by her first biographer and mythographer: a sister Charlotte.
Dr O’Callaghan said: “Nowadays, being shy or reserved is recognised as a composite part of some people’s personalities, which are multifaceted and complex. We accept that people display character traits in myriad ways in different situations.
“The image of a lone woman (and her dog) striding defiantly across the Yorkshire moorland is incredibly powerful to me; Emily was an independent spirit at a time when female independence wasn’t culturally welcomed, and it’s partly for that reason that she’s cruelly derided as odd and weird.” (Jim Seton)

Also in Keighley News, one of the upcoming activities at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: A Walk of Curiosity and Temptations:

Brontë fans can take the ‘walk of life’ this month in a special event organised by the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Speakers, writers and artists will take them on a trek across pathways and moorlands used by the Brontë siblings as they created their famous fiction.
The walkers will be invited to listen to unfolding narratives, alternative stories and flights of fancy amongst both well-trodden paths and lesser-known routes.
Those taking part include the museum’s guest curator Melanie Abrahams, guest speakers and artists John Agard, Sarala Estruch and Joe Williams, and local writer Tamar Yellin. (...)
The walk will be followed by chat, commentary and performances in the Branwell Suite at the Old White Lion in Haworth. (Jim Seton)

On yesterday's BBC Radio 3's The Essay:

Mab Jones on Jane Eyre
The Essay, Wisdom from fictional females Episode 5 of 5
Recorded at this week's Hay Festival 2018, Mab Jones introduces us to her favourite female character in literature - Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, with whom she identifies most - and extracts the lessons we could all learn from her.
Mab is a poet and a recent recipient of a Creative Wales Award, and a frequent presenter of BBC radio documentaries, including 'Hiraeth' and 'The Black Chair'. Mab is also the coordinator of International Dylan Thomas Day, consisting of 62 events around the globe. Her publications include 'Poor Queen' and 'take your experience and peel it'.
In this series of The Essay, five female writers offer a personal guide to favourite and well-known female fictional characters - extracting the lessons we could all learn from them.

The Mirror talks about the new Oxfam campaign #BooksChangeLives:

Victoria Hislop
The Island author went for Emily Brontë's Gothic masterpiece Wuthering Heights, saying: "It was the first adult book that I enjoyed - full of passion and drama. It is largely about volatile adolescents, so is ideal teenage reading material." (Laura Connor)

Viva Manchester interviews Hannah Bateman, Jane Eyre in the Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre touring production:

Jane Eyre is a book that means a lot to many people, but Hannah tried not to think about this while she was creating the role. “What I wanted to do,” she remembers, “is submerge myself in that world, and tell Cathy Marston’s version of Jane Eyre. It had to be her vision of it, with all the little bits of herself she wanted to include and deliver to the audience.”
She only realised the impact the ballet had after she had performed it. “Some people had to read the book at school, others read it as adults – with a completely different perspective. It touches everybody in some way; it is really a big part of English culture. But you can’t think of that too soon, or you would be flooded with responsibility!”
The role is emotionally very intense, which can be a challenge when the dancer has to deal with a difficult choreography at the same time. “It’s easy to get lost in the role,” says Hannah, “there is so much depth to it. But you have to be careful not to do this too soon, because you want to keep in a state of clarity so you are still delivering all of the steps the way you’ve been rehearsed. And you have to make sure you have enough energy, from the beginning to the end.”  (...)
Hannah is pleased that Jane Eyre has had such a great success. “Because so much of what we do hinges on the box office nowadays,” she says, “the company has to be really clever about what they commission. And as much as we like fairy tales and happy endings, they are not all reflective of real life, so, as an artist, I am really grateful that such a fantastic story could be adapted into a ballet, and people got on board with it. I applaud the British audience!” (Laura Joffre)

The New York Times reviews Viv Albertine's To Throw Away Unopened:

“To Throw Away Unopened” is enthusiastically chaotic, bursting with asides, footnotes, photos and quotes (from the likes of Virginia Woolf, Maggie Nelson, Margaret Atwood, Emily Brontë and Graham Greene). (Ada Calhoun)

Bustle presents 'the best' YA books released in June:

 'My Plain Jane' by Cynthia Hand, Jodi Meadows, and Brodi Ashton (June 26; HarperTeen)
The writing trio behind My Lady Jane are back, and this time they're taking on Jane Eyre—but not like you've always read it. In their signature madcap, snarky style, Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows spin a completely new Gothic story using Jane Eyre and Charlotte Brontë as characters and a loose guide. The result is an insanely fun mashup (seriously, there's commentary provided by a ghost). (Caitlin White)

The Sydney Morning Herald mentions the current personal project of author Lauren Groff:

"At first I was really mad at myself for writing about Florida," Groff says over Skype, where she sits in front of a crammed bookshelf (she is known to read some 300 books a year and is currently embarking on a project to reread all of the works of the Brontë sisters). (Melanie Kembrey)

Five Books interviews Claire Jarvis, academic and author:

Stephanie Kelley: That might be a good point to turn to your first book choice. In your book Exquisite Masochism: Marriage, Sex and the Novel Form, you call Wuthering Heights “one of the most written about, and most demanding, novels of the mid-century.” Why is that?
C.J.: Wuthering Heights is a strange novel in a lot of ways. It’s a standalone—there’s not really another book like it. This is apparent even in early editions edited after Emily Brontë’s death by Charlotte Brontë. Charlotte Brontë makes some strong claims for Emily’s goodness, passion and strangeness as a person. She’s trying to argue against readers who see the novel as immoral. Charlotte’s preface and alterations try to regularise Wuthering Heights and minimise the moral complaint one could have against the novel.

Audio Media International interviews Fiona Cruickshank, an engineer at London's AIR Studios:

Tara Lepore: What was your favourite project and why?
FC: Over the past 10 years there have been so many amazing moments. Watching Stevie Wonder record. Working with my favourite director Wes Anderson on The Grand Budapest Hotel. Assisting on Jane Eyre with Dario Marianelli, and the Che films with Alberto Iglesias – those scores made me cry!

The Times on the football manager Frank Lampard:

Frank Lampard strode on to the Pride Park pitch to film his Derby County arrival video in the modern style, drones soaring overhead, the new manager looking moody and magnificent like Heathcliff in the technical area, and sensed something “special”. (Henry Winter)

The Collective reviews Han Solo. A Story of Star Wars:

The Han Solo that audiences fell in love with 41 years ago is unapologetically not a hero and not a team player, even though he eventually (begrudgingly) does the right thing…but mostly because it benefits himself monetarily or because people he cares about are in danger. There’s a word for this: Byronic hero. We love Byronic heroes (Jane Eyre’s Mr Rochester is a famous example, as is Ironman/Tony Stark), but their origins must be treated differently from that of a hero’s.  (T.C.)

Bitculturali (Italy) reviews Il Silenzio e l'abisso by Pietro Citati:

 Nella sua penetrante rivisitazione di pagine e figure memorabili della letteratura universale, Pietro Citati ne offre esempi eloquenti.(...) I tormenti di Charlotte Brontë, che solo nell’ombra della propria infelicità trova la giusta luce per narrare nel suo ultimo libro la storia di due persone felici, e la nevrastenia di Dostoevskij, schiavo della penna e inesorabilmente attratto dalla vertigine della roulette, forse perché sola metafora possibile di quel grande gioco d’azzardo che è per lui la letteratura. (Translation)

Página 12 (Argentina) interviews Laura Ramos, author of  Infernales. La Hermandad Brontë:

Marina Yusczuk: Es muy impresionante el trabajo de escribir una biografía colectiva que se adivina detrás de tu libro. ¿Cómo fue ese proceso y por qué sentiste que había que narrar a los Brontë como conjunto?
L.R.: En un principio quise escribir sobre Branwell, porque me llamó la atención la figura de la exclusión. Después, al saber más sobre él, me gustó la idea del fracaso, del artista fracasado. Cuando leí su obra me atrajo todavía más porque, teniendo en cuenta que son poemas narrativos sin revisar ni corregir, y la edad en que fue escrita, es una obra muy ambiciosa y en ocasiones hasta hermosa. Al investigar más descubrí que no era un poeta fracasado, que había logrado construir una obra y una pequeña parte de esa obra se había publicado en periódicos de Yorkshire, al noroeste de Inglaterra. Su figura era más compleja de lo que parecía y en tal caso había que observarla en relación a la de Charlotte. A su vez, Emily fue la más genial de la hermandad, y al principio eran seis. Así que decidí escribir sobre las relaciones entre los hermanos.
M.Y.: Branwell parece una especie de figura trágica que, quizá por tomarse el romanticismo de modo demasiado literal, se malogró como escritor. ¿Por qué te pareció importante completar el cuadro con esa figura?
L.R.:Porque por una cuestión de linaje siempre me atrajeron los fracasados, los excluidos, las causas perdidas. Las tres Brontë también tienen esa cualidad vistas desde afuera. Pero en las políticas internas familiares Branwell jugó el papel del excluido, al menos hacia el final. En el principio, por las características de la cultura victoriana, fue el elegido, el preferido, el más dotado, el genio prometedor de la familia. Luego las miles de aventuras y comedias, y sobre todo tragedias por las que pasaron los hermanos, barajaron las cartas de nuevo y eso cambió. (Translation) (Read more)

El Mundo (Spain) interviews the writer Alaitz Leceaga:

 Una pasión por la lectura que mamó escuchando los cuentos de su madre y que ahormó con lecturas que explican la primera incursión de la joven bilbaína en el universo de la escritura profesional. Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë, Rebeca de Dauphen Du Maurier y La casa de los espíritus de Isabel Allende forman parte de las referencias más directas y que han influido en una novela que los primeros lectores también han situado próxima a las de Dolores Redondo, de un gran éxito de crítica y ventas. (Josean Izarra) (Translation)

BDGest (France) reviews the comic La Partition de Flintham by Barbara Baldi:

En technicienne affirmée, elle manie l’outil informatique avec un brio tel que les coups de pinceaux numériques se fondent avec évidence dans ses aquarelles et créent des atmosphères qui ne sont pas sans évoquer Les hauts de Hurlevent où les mois d’hiver enneigés succèdent aux jours pluvieux avec une monotone régularité. (S. Salin) (Translation)

Paris Match (France) interviews the writer Guillaume Musso:

Maître dans l’art du suspense, il tend à fouiller dans les ressorts de l’âme humaine pour ses romans de plus en plus psychologiques et réussis. Ce qu’il continue à chercher depuis toujours dans ses propres lectures, depuis que « Les hauts de Hurlevent » et « Belle du Seigneur » ont provoqué, en lui, de véritables chocs. De ceux qui orientent une vie. (Valérie Trierweiler) (Translation)

Fashion Magazine (Italy) discusses a fashion collection by Alessandro Michele:

Si può parlare di influssi - dal gotico a Cime tempestose, fino alla disco anni Ottanta e ai "salotti buoni" pre Sessantotto - e di capi o particolari che restano più impressi di altri: il corsetto fatto come una gabbia toracica, le grandi croci che compaiono dappertutto, l'ironia del diavolo che suona una trombetta sulla T-shirt dedicata al Grand Hotel Chateau Marmont, le fantasie tappezzeria o riprese dalle porcellane di Richard Ginoriche vanno a cozzare con i motivi a quadri, i versi di Dante Alighieri sulle giacche. (Translation)

Il Corriere della Sera (Italy) reviews Coppie by John Updike:

Era un odio sincero, un odio vero — come l’odio che nei confronti di ogni altro essere vivente nutriva Heathcliff, il trovatello oscuro protagonista di Cime tempestose — o era un paravento ostinato e infrangibile costruito per nascondere la propria solitudine e la propria infelicità? (Giorgio Montefoschi) (Translation)

Planeta Donna (Italy) quotes Charlotte Brontë; Femme Actuelle (France) mentions Wuthering Heights in a horoscope. My Jane Eyre Library presents a personalised wedding present at the end of WWII.

Finally, congratulations to Paula Rego who is nominated at The South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2018:

VISUAL ART
Paula Rego - The Boy Who Loved the Sea and Other Stories, Jerwood Gallery

The exhibition included her Jane Eyre lithographies.