Pop-Art Fever Dream

Manchester Evening News selects places to visit near Manchester in 2026:

Haworth, Yorkshire

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights may have been published more than 150 years ago, but it’s about to have a major cultural moment in 2026 thanks to Emerald Fennel’s hotly-anticipated adaptation starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. Given her last film Saltburn divided viewers, it’s not sure how much her film will stick to the original text - however without a doubt it will introduce the book to new audiences.

To celebrate the release of the film, why not make a pilgrimage to the home of the Brontë sisters in Haworth, West Yorkshire. Here you can visit the house where Emily grew up with her sisters Anne and Charlotte, along with their brother Branwell, which is now the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Dive even deeper into the world of Wuthering Heights and embark on a hike to Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse, said to be the inspiration for the Earnshaw home in the novel. You’ll have to head further north to see any filming locations, though, as scenes for the new Wuthering Heights were shot in the Yorkshire Dales. (Liv Clarke)

The New York Times interviews the writer Okinyan Braithwaite;

Oyinkan Braithwaite Would (Nervously) Invite Charlotte Brontë to Dinner (...)

Scott Heller: You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

O.B.: Toni Morrison, certainly — though I’d be far too intimidated to say much in her presence. Perhaps Charlotte Brontë, fingers crossed she isn’t racist (it was a different time). I could accept her being stunned, and I would fully expect confused — she did die two centuries ago, after all — but I don’t think I could bear disgusted. And my third would be Malorie Blackman, whose mind I’m deeply curious about.

The Telegraph & Argus has an opinion article about the Bradford's UK City of Culture legacy:

The year 2025 has been one of the most memorable in Bradford’s recent history. The famous political quote, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen...” feels particularly apt for a city that fumbled sleepily through the fist couple of decades of the new millennium, to then experience the most frantic 18 months a quarter of the way into it.

This was thanks in large part to scooping the prestigious UK City of Culture title. From huge new cultural venues and a brand-new central market, to more modest (but equally welcome) additions like new toilets for the Brontë Parsonage, 2025 has been a year of renewal and refreshment for the city’s cultural and heritage attractions. (Si Cunningham)

You know... films to watch in 2026. The Observer:

Starring Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, the casting alone has provoked outrage from purists, and that’s before we even get to a shot in which Cathy appears to be wearing a dress made of red PVC. The director of Saltburn was never going to make a strait-laced adaptation of a literary classic. We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to see the film in all its smouldering, bodice-ripping glory. (Wendy Ide)

The Guardian: 

Emerald Fennell, the Oscar-winning creator of Saltburn and Promising Young Woman, now takes on her biggest project yet: an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel, with Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as the smouldering, saturnine alpha hero himself, Heathcliff. A mild culture war has already begun with Fennell casting a white actor as Heathcliff, a character Brontë described as “dark-skinned”, while Andrea Arnold cast mixed race actor James Howson for her version in 2011. (It wasn’t an issue for William Wyler in 1939 who cast Laurence Olivier.)

The Times:

What’s left to say about Wuthering Heights? Plenty, apparently. After seven major movie adaptations, including versions by William Wyler, Peter Kosminsky and Andrea Arnold, along comes Saltburn’s posh provocateur Emerald Fennell. She has a white-hot cast that includes Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, a disruptor’s instincts and a teasing trailer that suggests this Brontë version will be a thumpingly delirious pop-art fever dream. (Kevin Maher, Ed Potton and Jonathan Dean)

Also in The Times: 

A messy bed, a 1,000-year-old embroidery and Heathcliff bedding Cathy await the nation this year.

Tracey Emin’s notorious artistic creation wakes from slumber in February, before the Bayeux Tapestry’s return to its homeland in the summer and just before what is expected to be a very 21st-century adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Emerald Fennell’s interpretation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff, is due to hit cinemas — provided the small-screen giant Netflix currently taking over Hollywood studios allows the big screen still to exist. (David Sanderson)

The Telegraph:

 “Aggressively provocative” was the verdict of one viewer at a test screening: this is not Brontë for the easily shocked. Writer-director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) has already scandalised purists by casting Hollywood stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff and complaints about the anachronistic costumes and set design are piling up. However successfully Fennell’s gambits pay off, it is certain to be one of the year’s biggest talking points – and seems to be gunning hard for the “BookTok” demographic, not least because of its hyperpop soundtrack with a dozen original songs by Charli XCX. (Robbie Collin and Tim Robey)

Los Angeles Times:

Those howls in the moors are literature fans fighting over whether this reimagining of Emily Brontë’s 1847 gothic romance will be confoundingly misguided or bodice-rippingly good. Either way, the latest provocation by Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman,” “Saltburn”) is already triggering a reaction just from its trailer which boasted images of lobsters in top hats, Margot Robbie in period-scrambling red sunglasses and Jacob Elordi licking a wall. Tepid is not Fennell’s thing. But so far, Fennell tends to be my thing — I admire directors who are game to take salacious swings. Will her ‘Wuthering Heights’ wind up being a juicy but familiar adaptation of the obsessive love affair between newlywed Cathy and her rich and cruel neighbor, Heathcliff? Or should audiences be reading into the suspicious air quotes around the title? A Valentine’s Day-adjacent opening hints it wants to make audiences hot and bothered. (Amy Nicholson)

Also in the New Milton Advertiser, ExtraTV, CNBC, Toronto Star, ELLE India, Zoom TV,  Protothema, Koimoi, Times Now News, Ohlalá, La Patria, Noroeste, Infobae, La Repubblica, Cosmpolitan, Clarus, NDR, US Magazine, IGN, Dallas Observer, The Hanford Sentinel, Hollywood Reporter, Filmfare, The Herald, Filmibeat, The Independent, Newsbytes, British Vogue, ABC News....

Gloucestershire Echo announces an upcoming exhibition of Paula Rego in Cheltenham:

A major new exhib­i­tion cel­eb­rat­ing one of the most influ­en­tial artists of the late 20th and early 21st cen­tur­ies opens in Chel­ten­ham on Janu­ary 30.

Paula Rego: Vis­ions of Eng­lish Lit­er­at­ure will be on dis­play at The Wilson Art Gal­lery and Museum, bring­ing together three of the artist’s most ambi­tious and pro­found series of works in print­mak­ing.

Por­tuguese-brit­ish artist Paula Rego (1935–2022) was widely recog­nised as one of the great print­makers and visual storytellers of her time.

Her work is known for its strik­ing imagery and nar­rat­ive depth, often draw­ing on lit­er­at­ure, folk­lore and lived exper­i­ence to explore themes of power, ima­gin­a­tion, inno­cence and cruelty.

The exhib­i­tion presents three major print series cre­ated across a pivotal dec­ade of Rego’s career: Nurs­ery Rhymes, Peter Pan and Jane Eyre.

These works rein­ter­pret famil­iar stor­ies from Eng­lish lit­er­at­ure, trans­form­ing well-known tales into com­plex and often unset­tling scenes that chal­lenge tra­di­tional ideas of child­hood, mor­al­ity and author­ity.

From men­acing fig­ures brought to life through chil­dren’s nurs­ery rhymes, to hal­lu­cin­at­ory depic­tions of Nev­er­land, and the tur­bu­lent emo­tional rela­tion­ships found in Char­lotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Rego’s prints invite audi­ences to look again at stor­ies they may think they know.