Brontë doodles

BBC Bitesize has an article on Dame Jacqueline Wilson, the Brontës and childhood imagination inspired by the upcoming Brontë Festival of Women's Writing.

Have you ever wondered at what age authors like Dame Jacqueline Wilson and the Brontës started writing? If you think it all started when they were adults, with classics like Tracy Beaker, Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, you would be wrong!

The Brontës began writing way before that, creating imaginary worlds and compiling their own work when they were just children. Likewise, Dame Jacqueline knew she wanted to write from just six years old.

Now, these literary legends are coming together in one place in the form of an exhibition and festival to celebrate and recognise the genre of children’s literature - fittingly taking place at the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire, where the family lived.

Dame Jacqueline will be a guest speaker at this year’s Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing, which focuses on children’s literature and takes place Friday 20 - Sunday 22 September 2024. Her books have been on the shelves of thousands of libraries across the world, with her stories often sticking with readers from childhood through to adulthood. [...]

Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said “The exhibition tells of how Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne Brontë lost their mother and two elder sisters in early childhood and how they sought refuge in an imaginary world.”

Toy soldiers bought for Branwell became the inspiration for several plays and stories written by the children. Ann added: “They produced miniature books and magazines, intended to be ‘read’ by the toy soldiers, and then hand-stitched into covers made from scraps of wallpaper or packaging." The books are tiny indeed, with some as small as 36 x 55mm (1.42 x 2.17 inches). [...]

The Brontë Parsonage Museum’s programme office Angela Clare understands the influence that reading as children can have on people as they grow older: “We always hope to inspire people to read more, write more, and try something new."

The Brontës enjoyed drawing as well as writing, having lessons from an early age. They often had to copy engravings in books, resembling characters from their stories.

While putting together the exhibition, Ann discovered something: “The Brontës often doodled on the margins of their books. While deciding what objects to display in the exhibition we found tiny pencil sketches in one of the Brontës’ books which we’d not noticed before.”

A contributor to The Yorkshire Post writes about going to Haworth by Brontë bus.

I'd heard so much about the Brontë sisters during my school years that I had become immune to their greatness.

I was ignorant to what these young women had achieved and continue to achieve through their literary masterpieces, namely Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights among others.

The books are set in the stunning backdrop of the West Yorkshire moors and the more I have learned about them, the more I have become intrigued to go on my own journey exploring the romantic landscape which inspired the novels. [...]

These striking green buses run hourly between Keighley and Hebden Bridge. Fortunately I was in luck as a bus was due as I entered Keighley bus station which proudly flies the Yorkshire Flag at full mast.

The Brontë buses transport people from Keighley through Brontë Country to Hebden Bridge.

It cost me £2 to board the bus which would take 15 minutes to Haworth. These single decker buses are clean, modern and even show off maps and share Brontë facts.

I was apparently the only excited tourist on the bus as I snapped photos of the Brontë signs and gazed out of the window to take in the stunning views which cascaded around me. (Sophie Mei Lan)

Elle has an article on Goth Glam rising from the dead.

Burton is, of course, far from the first creative to explore the gothic aesthetic. It flourished in the 19th century, when writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Wilkie Collins, Mary Shelley and Emily Brontë produced masterpieces of the genre. (Lauren Cochrane)

Express reports that, according to Priscilla Presley, Wuthering Heights 1939 was one of Elvis's favourite movies.