The Brontë sisters on a reading tour

August 1st is Yorkshire Day and The Telegraph and Argus has an article on celebrations around Bradford.

Weavers Guest House in Haworth is also lending a hand to celebrations by taking over the Visit Bradford Instagram account for a week (from August 1-9) to give people a closer look at the picturesque cobbles, moors and landscape in and around Haworth and Brontë County. (Natasha Meek)

The Spenborough Guardian seems to share an apocryphal tale about Anne Brontë:

Half-way up, on the right, was a block of four terraced houses.

“Just below these on the left in School Lane were two old cottages (now demolished), one of which was occupied by Anne Brontë, one of the Brontë sisters, and her friend.

Charlotte was a teacher but so was Anne. She taught my grandfather, who paid half a penny for two mornings a week, or two pence for a full week.

My mother had his maths book with every sum ticked correct and signed by her.

“When the cottages were demolished, the council agreed to erect a plaque stating that one of the cottages had been the residence of one of the Brontë sisters. I don’t know if this was ever done. (Margaret Watson)

As far as we know, Anne Brontë only lived near Dewsbury while studying and teaching with Miss Wooler and her sisters first at Roe Head and then at Heald's House and then while working as a governess for the Ingham family at Blake Hall. She never lived in a cottage with a friend or taught pupils outside school/a family.

Here's what AN Wilson says about Charles Dickens in The Guardian:

[His] novels are unlike any other writer’s. People have likened them to poems, to visions, to pantomime, and they are all these things. If you want to see how different he was to all his contemporaries, just try to imagine George Eliot or Thackeray or the Brontë sisters doing those reading tours, when thousands of people, the poor in multitudes, came to hear him. Nothing like it had been seen since John Wesley’s preaching tours.

The Clitheroe Advertiser and Times reviews The Miseducation of Evie Epworth by Matson Taylor.

Evie’s best friend Margaret is ‘destined for teaching’ but, inspired by her idols (Charlotte Brontë, Shirley MacLaine and the Queen), Evie dreams of a more independent life, far away from her rural home… a world of glamour lived under the bright lights of London (or maybe even Leeds). (Pam Norfolk)

Alfa y Omega (Spain) recommends reading Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey back to back.

De las numerosas recomendaciones estivales que la editorial Cátedra nos viene brindando en su activo perfil de redes sociales con el hashtag #UnVeranoMilHistorias, nos quedamos con su desafío literario de «leer en paralelo las tres novelas de las hermanas Brontë, toda una experiencia». Fue en el año 1847 cuando Charlotte, Emily y Anne alumbraron, respectivamente, Jane Eyre, Cumbres borrascosas y Agnes Grey, tres obras maestras de la literatura universal, en una sincronía que deja entrever, más allá de sus virtudes personales, el denominador común del asombroso genio familiar (recordemos, asimismo, que el padre, Patrick Brontë, fue clérigo y escritor de sermones y poemas campestres). (Carlos Pérez Laporta) (Translation)

ABC (Spain) asks writer Adolfo García Ortega about his three literary musts:

¿Y tres obras imprescindibles?

Me aventuro con estas al azar, porque es imposible semejante reducción. Propongo La educación sentimental, de Flaubert, el Ulises, de Joyce, y Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë. (Carmen R. Santos) (Translation)

France Info quotes André Téchiné on his film Les Soeurs Brontë:

Les films d’André Téchiné n’ont pas toujours reçu un bon accueil de la critique. Il revient au micro d’Elodie Suigo sur le Festival de Cannes de 1979 avec son long-métrage Les sœurs Brontë : "On appelait le film 'Les sœurs Gaumont'," et il ajoute que finalement, il a été peu heurté par ce dédain. "J’étais jeune donc j’étais plus insouciant et plus agressif à cette époque-là ; je ne me suis pas senti trop fragilisé". (Elodie Suigo) (Translation)

Gaffa (Denmark) ranks Kate Bush's albums and places The Kick Inside at number 2.

2) The Kick Inside (1978)

Imponerende debut, hvor den kun 19-årige Bush har skrevet samtlige sange uden hjælp fra andre. Albummet indeholder blandt andet de to klassikere ”Wuthering Heights” og ”The Man With the Child in His Eyes” og viser Bush fra sin mest ungdommelige og romantiske side, med stemmen i det allerøverste leje og hendes smukke klaverspil som en central del af udtrykket, der også tæller et større orkester. Samtidig er der masser af mystik og uhygge, eksempelvis på titelsangen, der tilsyneladende omhandler incest og slutter ganske brat og dermed lukker hele albummet, uden at musikken eller teksten har fundet hvile.

Debutsinglen "Wuthering Heights" er inspireret af en BBC-tv-udgave af Emily Brontës romanklassiker af samme navn fra 1847 – Bush havde ikke læst bogen, da hun skrev sangen en fuldmånenat umiddelbart efter at have set de sidste 10 minutter af tv-udgaven. Senere læste hun bogen og fandt ud af, at hun havde fødselsdag samme dag som Brontë, der i øvrigt døde af tuberkulose i 1848, kun 30 år gammel. (Ole Rosenstand Svidt) (Translation)

National Geographic Spain and Libreriamo (Italy) celebrate Emily Brontë's birthday today.