Funerals, Bertha, Vampires and more

Offaly Independent announces an upcoming event in Banagher, Ireland:

Charlotte Brontë's 209th birthday will be commemorated at an event being organised by the local Banagher Brontë Group on Saturday, April 26.

Proceedings will start at Charlotte's Way, The Hill, Banagher at 1.30pm where the group will gather to carpool for a field trip to Shannon Harbour, Shannonbridge, Meelick Weir Walkway, Victoria Lock and Eyrecourt.

The purpose of the trip is to visit places outside Banagher which Arthur Bell Nicholls would have been proud to show his new wife, the eminent novelist Charlotte Brontë, when they honeymooned in Banagher in July 1854.

Upon returning to Banagher at around 5pm, the group will gather in the new snug in Hough’s pub for readings by, on, or about the Brontës of Haworth and the Bells of Banagher.

This will be an 'open mic' format, so now is your chance to 'have your spake'!

The readings will conclude at about 6.30pm. Some folks will t
hen repair to Flynn's restaurant for food. Please make your own booking to guarantee a place at a table at 057 9151312.

Proceedings will conclude with a recital by the Banagher Brontë Ensemble in Corrigan’s Corner Pub at 9pm.

The ensemble is now an integral part of the group, and we have been awarded a grant of €800 to reward the gifted players for creating an extensive and growing repertoire of appropriate music.

The group will perform twice more this year, once in Heritage Week in Tullamore, as part of four days of celebration of the Brontë associations with County Offaly, particularly Banagher, from Friday, August 15 to Monday, August 18. Full details coming soon.

The group's final events for 2025 will be held at the end of November, when it will Arthur Bell Nicholls' 119th anniversary.

Mail on Sunday shows new pictures of the shooting of Wuthering Heights 2026 including the first ones of Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff: 

@Click Terry Bkackburn / Splash

Dressed in a long black coat, gold-buttoned waistcoat and with longer hair and sideburns, the actor also revealed a hooped earring for the highly-anticipated £62million production.

When he smiled, he flashed a gold tooth.

Robbie, 36, who plays Catherine Earnshaw, or Cathy, was dressed in a voluminous black gown with black veil during filming on Tuesday for what appeared to be a funeral scene. She clutched a hot water bottle in between takes on the moorland set.  (Molly Clayton)

GoMag recommends an independent show in New York (a bit later though):

Erase Erase follows Tess, a heartbroken young dyke, who forms an unexpected and all-consuming bond with an older woman, Nora, after being invited to her mansion in upstate NY. Erase Erase is a spiky, queer, darkly comedic spin on the gothic novel—think Gen-Z Jane Eyre or Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca by way of contemporary sugar mommies. Erase Erase runs from April 10th-12th at Grace Exhibition Space.

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Creation of Half-Broken People, writes about the African Gothic Novel in Crime Reads:

When I wrote The Creation of Half-Broken People I definitely wanted the Gothic to matter. My first introduction to the genre was when I read Jane Eyre in high school in my A-Level English class. Having been primed by most of the literature that I had consumed till that point to sympathize with the often-white protagonist of the story, my encounter with Bertha Mason turned out to be a revelation. My superb teacher, Mrs. Joan Madonko, made me realize that Bertha Mason in all her wretchedness was not something to fear as Jane did and Mr. Rochester encouraged, but was instead someone that I, a black girl living in a former British colony, should understand and feel an affinity towards. (...)

The story had many false starts… until I decided to deliberately write it as a Gothic novel—as a story that is in conversation with Jane Eyre. 

El País (Spain) reviews the new novel of Aixa De La Cruz, Todo Empieza con la Sangre: 

De pronto, muchos factores aparecidos en las páginas precedentes toman un vuelo distinto, y la relectura de Cumbres borrascosas que se insinúa en la novela gana profundidad, y lo mismo ocurre con los ecos bíblicos que la puntúan. (Nadal Suau) (Translation)

El Español (Spain) is more explicit:

Amores vampíricos y voluptuosidad lésbica: Aixa de la Cruz se viste de Emily Brontë en su nueva novela. (...)

En la última novela de Aixa de la Cruz (Bilbao, 1988), todo empieza con Emily Brontë. Su protagonista, Violeta, crece fascinada bajo el signo de Cumbres borrascosas, es decir, obsesionada con ser una heroína de amor, deseosa de vivir una historia romántica y apasionada que no se convierta nunca en tragedia ni abandono. Y así es como Violeta, Cathy contemporánea, encuentra a Paul, su Heathcliff particular. 

Como en la novela de Brontë, el vínculo que construyen se encuentra por encima de la sangre y la amistad, del sexo y el erotismo; si en el siglo XIX había matrimonios de conveniencia, corazones rotos y venganza, en el XXI hay búsqueda de otros modos de establecer relaciones que no pudran el amor. (...)

Aixa de la Cruz lo sabe y por eso nos regala su versión contemporánea de unas cumbres borrascosas coronadas de pactos de amor que sangran nuevas formas de quererse en un mundo insoportable. (Begoña Méndez) (Translation)

and they also interview the author:

A.D.L.C.: Esta novela nació como una especie de diálogo con Cumbres borrascosas, mi novela preferida en la infancia y adolescencia, a la que vuelvo siempre para entender la fascinación que genera un tipo de romanticismo violento que atrae como un precipicio.

Nuria Azancot: ¿Qué le debe este libro, y usted como autora, a la novela gótica y a Jane Austen?

A.D.L.C.: (...) Las heroínas se acaban enamorando de lo que, casualmente, les conviene en términos económicos, y ostentan un autocontrol que, si nos movemos al periodo romántico con Cumbres borrascosas, queda arrasado. De Austen me gusta esta asociación de la novela romántica con la novela de tensión de clase, como en El amante de Lady Chatterley o en Gente normal de Sally Rooney, que es una autora en la que pensé bastante también mientras escribía este libro.

N.A.: ¿Y qué peso tienen los vampiros? Porque la sangre atraviesa todo el libro...

A.D.L.C.:  Claro, es que la metáfora de los vampiros es perfecta para hablar de ese amor fusional rollo Cumbres borrascosas ("¡Yo soy Heathcliff!, gritaba Catherine"), que no respeta ni desea la individualidad del otro. (Translation)

Festivaltopia lists novels that were hated at first but are now considered masterpieces, including Wuthering Heights. The novel is also included in another list of surprising real-life inspirations behind classic novels.