Vote for Brontë the raven

Evening Standard and many others report that the public will name the Tower of London’s baby raven.

Born in March, the young corvid will be named either Florence, Matilda, Branwen, Brontë or Winifred, decided by a public vote running between May 4 and May 18.

The legend of the ravens says that if the birds leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall, with King Charles II thought to be the first monarch to demand the protection of the birds. [...]

The public will choose between a number of historically significant women in naming the raven, with pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale and the legendary literary Bronte sisters among them. [...]

The winning name will be announced as part of the reopening.

To have your say in the naming of one of the Tower’s latest arrivals, visit www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/whats-on/the-ravens. (Tom Ambrose)

Also in the Evening Standard an interview with actress Dolly Well, who plays Aunt Sadie in Emily Mortimer's adaptation of Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.

In Mitford’s world, women see marriage as their only way to escape their fathers and be free. “I came across this when I read Villette [by Charlotte Brontë] at university,” says Wells. “I felt Lucy Snowe had such an interesting point about how the best way to be was to be a woman who was married but not in the same country as your husband, because you had freedom of being able to move around in the world. You had the status of being a married woman so could be in the world. And you were like a turkey being fattened, having to learn to have a little bit of intelligence but not enough to be threatening or make any man jealous or embarrassed. Things have hopefully changed, although not enough. I hate the idea of young women feeling scared walking home at night. We have a long way to go, there is all sorts of oppression going on.” (Susannah Butter)