Miniature Brontë Parsonage for bats

ITV News has the latest info on the Brontë Parsonage Museum reopening:

The Brontë Parsonage Museum in West Yorkshire has been getting ready to partially re-open next week as lockdown restrictions continue to ease.

The home of the sisters who wrote some of the greatest English novels has been closed for most of the last year, with the shop finally being allowed to re-open next week.

The museum is hoping to re-open fully in May after being kept afloat by donations from the public.

Ann Dinsdale, who has worked at the museum for 32 years, said: "There's been nothing to compare with this in my experience.

"It's been quite devastating really. The parsonage was kept open all through the Second World War so to have to shut was really like a huge momentous thing and there was always that worry that we might never reopen." [...]

Rebecca Yorke, from the museum, said: "We managed to open last September and October and we organised a timed ticketing system where people booked their tickets in advance and we limit it to six people every 15 minutes, that means we can control numbers and people can have a really safe welcoming experience.

"Visitors really benefit from that because they have what would normally be a very busy house practically to themselves as they go through, so that's a win-win situation." (Jon Hill)

Fingers crossed it only goes from strength to strength from now on.

Good Housekeeping describes Haworth as a 'book-lover's dream'.

If you're looking for somewhere beautiful to visit after lockdown, you'd do well to consider picturesque Haworth during a staycation to Yorkshire this summer.

Strolling around the village of Haworth in the Airedale Valley is like stepping into another era. It’s got a buzzy high street with tea rooms, pubs and craft shops, and steep cobbled alleys which you can climb for never-ending views of the beautiful moorland all around.

You’ll also sense its proud literary heritage in the town’s storied streets - a certain local family’s name is everywhere, with landmarks, museums and natural sights named after its most famous residents. [...]

The history of the Brontë family can be traced in Haworth’s world-famous Brontë Parsonage Museum, where you’ll find 19-century furniture, clothing and the sisters’ own personal possessions.

Following the path from the Parsonage Museum, you’ll reach the rugged moors where so much of their writing was set in a few minutes. This dramatic landscape was the backdrop to Catherine and Heathcliffe’s [sic] love affair in the legendary Wuthering Heights, which you should wrap up warm and relive!

Marrying the town’s two golden treasures - the Brontës and country walks - is the Brontë Trail, which takes you across the moors from Haworth to the lovely Brontë Waterfall in just 45 minutes. (Rebecca Wilson)

BBC News reports that 'three bats found near the Brontës' birthplace have been named after the sisters'.

Source

The pipistrelles were discovered in the roof of the Grade II listed South Square Centre in Thornton, near Bradford, during the arts centre's restoration in 2020, close to where the three literary sisters were born.

Now the bats have a replica of the Brontës' birthplace as a bat box.

"It was never going to be 'just a box'," the arts centre said. [...]

The arts centre asked heritage assistant Chloe Moreton to design the box - a replica of the Brontës' birthplace on Market Street in Thornton, a few minutes walk from the Grade II listed arts centre on South Square. [...]

Yvonne Carmichael is director of the arts centre, a collection of 19th Century Grade II workers' cottages in Thornton, five miles (8km) from Bradford.

She said: "We do a lot of work around the Brontë family, so it was only right that we named our bats after the three remarkable sisters."

A controversy surrounding this year's Women's Prize randomly brought up Emily Brontë's name (also Currer Bell in the original letter--please refrain from dragging classic authors' names through the mud. Either be brave enough to sign with your own name or bother to make up your own pseudonym but don't use someone else's. Or simply shut up). From The Guardian (and many other sites have the story as well):

The Women’s prize for fiction has issued a strongly worded statement saying that it “deplores any attempts to malign or bully” authors nominated for the prize, after trans novelist Torrey Peters was targeted in an open letter.

The US writer, who is nominated for the £30,000 award for her debut novel Detransition, Baby, was the subject of a letter published online on Tuesday by the Wild Women Writing Club. The letter, which is signed by several dead women writers including Emily Dickinson and Daphne du Maurier, claims that some signatories were using pseudonyms “because of the threat of harassment by trans extremists and/or cancellation by the book industry”.

The signatories argue that the decision to longlist Peters for the Women’s prize, founded 25 years ago in the aftermath of an all-male Booker shortlist, “communicates powerfully that women authors are unworthy of our own prize, and that it is fine to allow male people to appropriate our honours … the moment you decided that a male author was eligible, the award ceased to be the Women’s prize and became simply the Fiction prize.” [...]

Others made light of the pseudonyms on the letter; author Melinda Salisbury wrote: “Just bought a new book! It’s called Detransition, Baby, It was recommended by my good friend, Emily Brontë. She’s a big fan.” Author Joanne Harris wrote, “If you’re expecting me to believe that you’re not secretly ashamed of your opinions, or embarrassed by your allies, then maybe don’t hide behind a dead person’s identity whilst simultaneously trying to strip someone living of theirs.” (Sian Cain)

We could do without Pink News' explanations though:

Among the signatories are Emily Dickinson, who died in 1886; Daphne DuMaurier, who died in 1989; Willa Cather, who died in 1947; and Currar [sic] Bell, the pseudonym of Emily Bronte [SIC] who died in 1855. (Lily Wakefield)

Publimetro (Colombia) interviews writer Pilar Quintana about her novel Los abismos.

El libro, hacia su giro final, toma tintes de novela de terror, ¿cuál diría que es el elemento que la lleva a ese punto? ¿Únicamente la imaginación de Claudia hija?

Siempre quise escribir una novela gótica. En la adolescencia me fascinaron Cumbres borrascosas, de Emily Brontë, y Rebeca, de Daphne Du Maurier, que son novelas góticas. Además, vengo de una tradición en la que el gótico tropical tuvo bastante fuerza: Andrés Caicedo en Noche sin fortuna y algunos cuentos y Carlos Mayolo en el cine. (Laura López) (Translation)

Dewsbury Reporter picks up the story of the plans for Mary Taylor's Red House.

Speaking about the proposal, Colin Parr, Kirklees Council’s strategic director for environment and climate change, said: “The proposal detailed in the report will allow the council to retain the property in public ownership without incurring huge operating costs.

“We have looked at the example set by the National Trust and the Landmark Trust, who both renovate heritage buildings to let as holiday cottages as a way of sustaining them, and we are confident that this could be a business model that works for the council too.

“As well as its broad appeal, we think this scheme will benefit tourism to the area by attracting people who are interested in the Brontë connection to Red House, and the prospect of staying in a house where Charlotte frequently visited and wrote about.

“At the same time, we hope that the proposal will make it possible to offer managed community access to a site which we know is much-loved by local people.”

A spokesperson for the Red House Yorkshire Heritage Trust said: “We are aware that Kirklees Council has published their proposal to make a significant investment into the Red House site. Their vision is for both the main house and cart shed to be refurbished and re-opened as quality short-term holiday stays.

“Our group’s priority remains that this important heritage site is respected and protected in public or community hands.

“We recognise that for this to happen, there must be an appropriate, sympathetic and financially viable use for the site, so while we certainly welcome the investment, we remain open-minded about the council’s new approach.

“From conversations we have had with the council, we are pleased that they recognise that our views on the future of Red House are important.

“We have been assured that although this proposal does have a commercial focus, there is a commitment to ensuring our local community can also access the site over a number of open weekends and specially-curated events throughout the year which pay homage to its outstanding heritage credentials.

“The council have also assured us that as the barn will not be a part of the new commercial activity there could be scope for community and heritage activities to be based there in the future.

“We look forward to being consulted as the project progresses and to celebrating the heritage of the site and facilitating access for the benefit of the local and wider community.”

The Clinic (Chile) mentions the role of the Brontës in the feminist approach to literature.