Charlotte Brontë's 210th birthday

First of all, a happy 210th birthday to Charlotte Brontë. And let us recommend a recent release to do with her life but from a different point of view: Eleanor Houghton's Charlotte Brontë's Life through Clothes, which starts precisely on this day in 1816 in Thornton.

The Star lists the Brontë-related events that will be taking place at Scarborough's forthcoming Books by the Beach, based at Queen Street Methodist Central Hall from Friday, June 5 to Sunday, June 7.

Brontë expert, author and scholar Deborah Lutz is flying in from the USA to share her new biography with Scarborough audiences at Queen Street on the Friday at 10am..

Her This Dark Night is the first full biography of Emily Brontë in more than 20 years. Emily was 27 when she started writing Wuthering Heights. Three years later, she was dead.

Out of step with her own time and remembered as the strangest of the three Brontë sisters, she has always been hard to know, especially given the destruction of her papers.

Deborah is one of the few people who has felt and examined much of the Brontë’s surviving material including letters, desks, chairs and books and all of the tiny poetry manuscripts and notebooks.

These include the hand-written manuscript of Emily’s poems rediscovered in 2021 at Honresfield House near the Brontë family home, Haworth Parsonage.

At the opening event, Deborah will reveal the politics and events of the era as well as the delights and tragedies of the Bronte family’s life, including Emily’s sisters Anne and Charlotte, which directly inspired much of Emily’s writing.

It’s a fresh take on her short but momentous life which shows why so many of us are still fascinated by the Brontë family.

Deborah will be in discussion with festival patron and former head of BBC Radio Helen Boaden.

The Emily Brontë theme continues with Essie Fox, the Sunday Times best-selling author of seven historical novels, including The Somnambulist which was shortlisted for the National Book Awards. She is the host of the podcast Talking the Gothic.

She will be talking about her reimagining of Wuthering Heights at Queen Street on the Friday at 12.30pm. Essie Fox’s new novel Catherine, told through the narrative voice of Catherine Earnshaw, is already being hailed as a classic in its own right.

Heather French, festival organiser, said: “Essie’s retelling of Wuthering Heights is haunting and atmospheric, and I was glued to it.

"It’s also topical as we’re now seeing a renewed cultural fascination with all things gothic – in books, films and fashion. I’m really looking forward to these two Brontë-themed events and of course we have very strong Brontë connections here in Scarborough."

Anne Brontë stayed in Scarborough and is buried in St Mary’s Churchyard. (Sue Wilkinson)

The Guardian features thriller writer Freida McFadden.

While she credits Daphne du Maurier and Charlotte Brontë as inspiration – “Rebecca and Jane Eyre were the original domestic thrillers,” she told the Times – her contemporary favourites include Verity by Colleen Hoover, Room by Emma Donoghue, and The Green Mile by Stephen King. (Ella Creamer)