Aoife Hinds and the Brontës

The Brontës: An Irish Tale is on TV tonight and Belfast News Letter features Aoife Hinds, who presents it.

In the documentary Aoife explores the surprising Irish connections that had a lasting impact on the Brontës, their work and their legacy in locations throughout Ireland and Yorkshire.

Aoife will visit Patrick Brontë’s birthplace in Rathfriland, Co Down and discover how a rural school teacher ended up studying in Cambridge. She will also explore the romance between Charlotte Bronte and Arthur Bell Nicholls, from Co Antrim.

Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nicholls married after a long courtship and ended up honeymooning in Ireland. Aoife will also visit Banagher, County Offaly, where Arthur lived after Charlotte’s death, and discover that it is thanks to Arthur much of the iconic Brontë memorabilia survives to this day.

Aoife said: “I went to school in France so we didn’t even study the Brontës. I didn’t know that much about them and I didn’t know about the Irish ties at all until I starting researching for the documentary. It was a brilliant learning experience. I’m now a big fan.”

The documentary was filmed in December (Graeme Cousins)

The Telegraph has an article on how 'TikTok’s curious combination of ‘blue hair and tears’ is sending book sales through the roof'.

The rise of “BookTok” is driving teenagers and young adults into bookshops in numbers not seen since the Harry Potter years, according to the head of Waterstones. [...] 

The #BookTok hashtag has had 37.4 billion views and popular influencers tend to be young women, mostly recommending books by female authors. [...]

The Barnes & Noble list features classic titles The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights. (Anita Singh)

Merion West reviews The Lives of Literature: Reading, Teaching, Knowing by Arnold Weinstein.

As I write this review, I have just finished a draft of an essay on Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights focusing on the destructive love of Heathcliff and Catherine, just as Weinstein focuses in on the “horror” of “knowing.” Chalk up another moment, as Weinstein discusses Brontë’s exceptional novel, of finding myself in Weinstein’s life and work and becoming him in that moment. And if you happen to have a fondness for that tale of Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Cathy Linton, and Hareton Earnshaw, you might do yourself well to read Weinstein’s book just for his reflection on the dark sublimity set in the Welsh moors [sic]. (Paul Krause)

Times of India has selected '7 classic gothic novels that will send chills down your spine' including

04/7 ​'Jane Eyre' by Charlotte Brontë (1847)

Jane, although poor and of plain appearance, possesses an indomitable spirit, sharp wit, and great courage. She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer, and a rigid social order. Like other Gothic novels, 'Jane Eyre' is set in the quintessential isolated house that is full of secrets. The unquiet estate of Edward Rochester, where Jane works as a governess, has it all: a strange attic, winding halls, and an imprisoned wife.

Greater Kashmir discusses 'Winter and Literature'.

Winter is a starkly beautiful season. With frosty mornings, bright, crisp days and snow-covered earth. It’s easy to see how it has inspired writers throughout ages. Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Dickens, Emily Brontë, Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost, Virginia Woolf, Albert Camus, Pablo Neruda, and Agha Shahid Ali, all have aestheticised winter in their own way. (Ahsan Ul Haq)

Brides share Valentine's Day quotes including one from Jane Eyre.