Can you name Britain's first seaside resort? Congratulations to those who said Scarborough. Established as a spa town in the 1620s with the discovery of a mineral spring, the resort took its next step a few decades later when a local physician, Dr Wittie, recommended the benefits of a bracing dip in the sea. By the 19th century, Scarborough was the queen of British resorts, rivalled only by Brighton. Victorians flocked to its imposing spa complex (still there) and fine beaches, while three million came each year into the 1950s. The rise of foreign travel in the 1960s, however, hit Scarborough in the same way it did other UK seaside destinations.With some delay we report the January meeting of the Todmorden Ladies’ Probus Club where Ian Emberson made a talk. From Todmorden News:
The town's renaissance is driven not only by a renewed appreciation of the British seaside but also by new money from northern financial centres such as Leeds, along with an influx of creative types. Its appeal is clear enough. Wide, sandy beaches curve around the town's two bays - the smarter South Bay, with its backdrop of shops, restaurants and hotels, and the North Bay's more bucket-and-spade appeal. A headland divides the two, topped by a 12th-century castle that overlooks a tiny harbour.
Scarborough has culture, too. Not many seaside towns have four theatres, including the acclaimed Stephen Joseph Theatre, where Alan Ayckbourn has premiered most of his 60-odd plays. You can add a well-regarded jazz festival and Britain's last seaside orchestra. Anne Brontë loved the town and used it in Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I look down on the bay from the balcony of the Crown Hotel, whose Victorian elegance is typical of the town's finest buildings. The nearby Grand Hotel is being restored, while Scarborough has its first boutique hotel: Beiderbecke's. (Norman Miller)
The continuing search for unpublished material surrounding the world-famous Brontë family could throw up some welcome "finds" in the Todmorden area, a local expert believes.A week ago, Mr Emberson gave another talk in Mytholmroyd:
Speaking at the January meeting of the Todmorden Ladies’ Probus Club, Ian Emberson, said that the Brontë sisters had some considerable links with the area.
Their mother’s uncle, the Rev John Fennell, was vicar of Cross Stone during their young lives and Charlotte’s husband, the Rev Arthur Bell Nicholls, was a friend of the Rev Sutcliffe Sowden, who was Mr Fennell’s curate before becoming vicar of Hebden Bridge.
Mr Emberson, a retired music librarian, said it was highly probable that the literary sisters had made a number of visits to the Cross Stone vicarage and that the descendants of people living in the parish at the time could reveal some interesting information that had never before been published.
Mr Emberson and his wife, Catherine, have published “Recollections of the Brontës” by George Sowden, who succeeded his brother, Sutcliffe, at Hebden Bridge. His article had remained virtually forgotten for more than 100 years. They came across the material by chance while researching for an article on Mr Fennell (Brontë Studies 2005).
At the Probus meeting, Mr Emberson, a member of both the Gaskell and Brontë Societies, was assisted his by wife, and together they presented a carefully-crafted talk about Todmorden’s Brontë links, interspersed with readings from letters and other material penned by the Brontës or their friends and acquaintances.
It proved the perfect combination, with Mr Emberson explaining the Brontë story and his wife reading the passages that so brilliantly illustrated the theme.
Mr Fennell was vicar of Cross Stone from 1819 until his death in 1841 at the age of 67. An eloquent tribute by Mr Fennell to his first wife, Jane (Mrs Maria Brontë’s aunt), inscribed on her gravestone at Cross Stone, and Charlotte’s letter to her father while staying with Mr Fennell with Emily, Anne and Branwell were included in the presentation.
Mr and Mr Emberson were thanked on behalf of the Probus Club by Mrs Liz Gore.
Mytholmroyd Methodist Church, Historical Society 7.30pm, speaker Ian Emberson on The Brontes. (Halifax Evening Courier, February 8)On The Loy we can read more comments about The Heights, the contemporary setting of Wuthering Heights performed in Dublin by The Playgroup Company:
"I like to call is "making up" rather than devising," says director, Tom Creed, of his latest show, The Heights, a brand new stage version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.The National Post talks about zombies in films. Our very own Brontë zombie movie (Jacques Tourneur's 1943 I Walked with a Zombie) is mentioned:
Or almost a version of Bronte's novel, because according to Creed, the play is as much a homage to movie version of the book, and even Kate Bush's hit single version of the story.
"I think a lot of people feel they know the story of Wuthering Heights, but they haven't actually read the book. Kate Bush, for instance, hadn't read the book when she wrote the song…and the idea for the play came from thinking about the Merle Oberon / Lawrence Olivier film version."
All the same, Creed and company did get the book off the shelf too, although leafing through it has not exactly produced a facsimile version. For a start, The Heights is set in a city…
"The characters in the book have the moors running through their veins. And for a 19th century audience, the moors will have represented something cool and romantic, the sort of place where you could go and just get lost. Today, it is the city that has that quality for me, this place where you can go and disappear..."
And then there is the little business of period. The Heights is set in the 1980s…
"The story is told by the decedents of Heathcliff and Cathy, who we imagine to be living today, so then we imagine that the love story happened more than twenty years ago, which leave us…in the 1980s." (Luke Clancy)
The next significant zombie film was refined at its roots; I Walked with a Zombie, a 1943 collaboration between director Jacques Tourneur and producer Val Lewton, is a loose retelling of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The story of a Canadian nurse who travels to the Caribbean to cure a woman suffering from a strange ailment is free of the genre's more blunt elements, relying on mood and atmosphere to create suspense. (Joel McConvey)And...
En suma: una cuidada edición, una novela inolvidable y el lujo de contemplar los dibujos de Balthus. Todo un placer. (Banda aparte)Categories: Books, Brontëana, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Talks, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
A book of poems relating to the famous literary Bronte sisters, their lives and the landscapes which influenced them, has been published by a Calder Valley author this month.Stay tuned for our review of Mourning Ring.
Mourning Ring: Bronte Related Poems is the latest work by artist, author and poet Ian Emberson, although some of the poems had their genesis in the past and three have appeared before.
But with extra poems added and illustrations completely reworked, the new volume finally sees them published in the way the Todmorden-based author is very happy with.
"It's a collection gathered over the years, some of the poems were written 30 years ago and the latest a few months ago. It wasn't originally planned as a whole," he said.
Some years ago Ian had produced a slim volume called Three Bronte Poems, which came from a reading at Haworth in connection with the 100th anniversary of the Bronte Society in 1993.
But he was never really happy with it from an illustrative point of view and these years later decided to rework it.
"I like unified illustrations and the like and decided to revamp the whole thing.
"The illustrations, apart from the cover, I did in water soluble pencil and the cover in ink.
"Some of the ideas are ones I am using again but they have all been done this year," he said.
Ian said he wanted to thank Chris Hall at Lambert's Printers for the work he had done to realise the book exactly as he wanted it.
Some of the poems, such as "Anne" and "Cross Stone Vicarage" (the latter is a strong local link with the Brontes) relate directly to the sisters, while others, including "Mourning Ring" and "Ignus Fatuus" are inspired by their work.
Aspects of the Yorkshire and Lancashire landscapes which featured in the lives of the sisters are present in virtually all of the poems.
At the end of the nine-poem work Ian has included a short page of brief notes which explain where the inspiration for many of the poems came from.
This serves not only to enhance enjoyment of the poems themselves but also to send readers back to original Bronte texts to read again the context.
Lovers of the powerful landscapes which shaped Bronte lives will enjoy them too as they are very evocative.
Composer Robin Terry is already working on a song-cycle based on the poems which it is hoped will be debuted at Haworth next year.
Mourning Ring: Bronte Related Poems costs £3 and is published by Ian's Angria Press imprint. It is available from the Border Bookshop, Todmorden, Todmorden Tourist Information Centre and Lyall's Bookshop, Todmorden, The Bookcase, Hebden Bridge, Hebden Bridge Visitor and Canal Centre and from the Bronte Parsonage gift shop in Haworth.
I was pleased to receive a copy of one of my favourite novels, Jane Eyre, produced by White's Books (£19.95; www.whitesbooks.com). Designed by David Pearson, the man responsible for Penguin's dashing “Great Ideas” series, these clothbound hardbacks with stylish covers are a treat. (Erica Wagner)The Guardian Books Blog touches on the topic of happy endings vs not so happy endings.
But it made me wonder which stories would suffer most from a tacked-on happy ending. Anna is saved from the train by Vronsky! It was all a big misunderstanding – Oedipus isn't really part of the family! Cathy and Heathcliff enjoy a long and happy marriage! Over to you… (Alison Flood)We are very sorry for Heathcliff, Cathy and the rest of them all but that would have indeed been Mills & Boon-y.
There's nobody else up here. Listen and you can almost hear Gollum snuffling around the perimeter. "Yesssss, my precioussss." Well, it's him or that chap Heathcliff. (Keith Austin)Because, you know, Gollum and Heathcliff are like two peas in a pod.
Our thanks to Mr. Emberson who kindkly sent us a copy of this chapbook.Mourning Ring.Just some months ago we celebrated the appearance of a poetry chapbook inspired by Jane Eyre, Rita María Martínez's Jane-in-a-Box, and now we are delighted to present just another one, Mourning Ring by Ian M. Emberson(1). Even if both are poetry collections inspired by the Brontës they could not be more different, which, once again, shows the wide range of artistic responses that the Brontës works are able to generate.
Brontë related poems
by Ian M Emberson,
Angria Press, 2008, 20 pp. £3.00
ISBN 978 0 9521693 6 9
Angria Press, 1 Highcroft Road, Todmorden. UK. OL14 5LZ; telephone (01706) 812716;
e-mail ianemberson@aol.com.
Website www.ianemberson.co.uk
an exploration of Jane Eyre and Villette in terms of a possible basic mythology - largely drawn from The Bible, Paradise Lost and The Pilgrim's Progress - all early influences on Charlotte Brontë's mind.More snake imagery: Ian M. Emberson's prose poems 2003 collection, The Snake and the star.
And what's beyond
a pilgrimage - eternal - without shrine?
- perhaps a binding hell
- or fragile heaven?
Richard Wilcocks shares extremely sad news on the Brontë Parsonage Blog. Artist, composer, writer and Brontë scholar Ian M. Emberson (1936-2013) died last Monday. From his website:Ian Emberson was born at Hove in Sussex in 1936, and is proud to have been christened by the poet Andrew Young. After moving around quite a bit, he now lives with his wife Catherine in the small town of Todmorden - just within the Yorkshire boundary, despite the postal address.He was indeed very much involved with the Brontë Society and he was a frequent contributor to Brontë Studies(1) (and its predecessor, Brontë Society Transactions). His last contribution can be found in the latest issue: Passages in the Life of Which Individual?, Brontë Studies, Volume 38, Number 3, September 2013 , pp. 240-244(5).
For many years he was Music Librarian at Huddersfield, but has now retired in order to concentrate on writing and art. He also enjoys walking and swimming and is a life-member of the Gaskell and Brontë Societies. His daughter Beth lives in France.
He took to painting and writing in early childhood, and pursued those activities all his life, drawing creatively on his life’s experiences in whichever form his work took. The results were always of high quality.
Following National Service (Royal Signals, Cyprus, 1955-57), he went on to earn a living in both horticulture and librarianship in different parts of the country, settling in Huddersfield in 1971 on becoming Music Librarian. He retired in 1986 to concentrate on painting and writing.
His work as an artist is best known through postcards and book illustrations. His publications include eight books of poetry and prose-poems, as well as many journal and magazine articles. In 1996 Bradford Playhouse produced his one-actor play Cockerel Crowing Dawn, based on the life of the Russian composer Mussorgsky. Ian also wrote the libretto for Daniel Bath’s opera The Forest, performed at the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival in 2003. Four other composers have set his poetry to music.
Ian met Catherine through the Brontë Society in 1988, and despite his love for his home village of Thurstonland, and the many musical interests of Huddersfield, he moved to Todmorden to be with her. Ian initially found it difficult to adjust, but soon came to love the town, its wonderful walking country and its swimming pool. He became well known at literary, artistic and musical events. He was a patron of Todmorden Orchestra and an enthusiastic member of Todmorden Antiquarian Society. His talk ‘A Comer-In’s View of Yorkshire’ - based on his semi-autobiographical book Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes - was due to be given to that organisation shortly.
Ian and Catherine worked together on various pieces of Brontë research. One of these led to the discovery of George Sowden’s Recollections of the Brontës – which had lain virtually forgotten for over one hundred years. The Brontë Society have published Ian’s book Pilgrims from Loneliness: an interpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” and “Villette” .
Ian had two children by his first marriage – Beth, who lives in France, and the late Robert, who died in 2012.
His funeral will be at 1.30pm on Monday, November 18, at St Mary’s Church, Todmorden, and from 3pm to 5pm friends are invited to gather at the Bear Cafe to chat about Ian and hear some of his works. (John Greenwood)
 |
| Steve Wood and other members of the Top Withins board (Source) |
A ruined farmhouse with literary connections high on the Pennine Way has a new information panel offering walkers a glimpse into its history. (...)
The building, which is owned by Yorkshire Water, also has a small, rudimentary bothy attached.
Local historian Steve Wood researched the background to the building which has no direct links with the Victorian author or her works, but has been held by many to match the location of the Earnshaw dwelling in the Bronte novel.
The panel tells the story of farming high above Haworth, going back at least 400 years with the first written record of a William Bentley dividing his estate amongst his three sons.
Their tough livelihood had to be supplemented by income from other activities including quarrying and weaving.
The panel has been placed in the ruins at Top Withins, also sometimes known as Top Withens, as part of the Watershed Landscape Project, managed by Pennine Prospects and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and South Pennine Leader.
Alastair Harvey, countryside and recreation manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “As the owner we have carried out restoration works to the building to ensure it is able to withstand the erosive nature of the sometimes vicious upland weather.
“We are grateful for funding from Pennine Prospects and Heritage Lottery Fund that enabled us to protect the ruin for years to come.”
Robin Gray, Watershed Landscape project manager, said: “So many visitors come up to this romantic ruin but until now there has been little information.
“We hope that visitors will now feel better informed not just about the ruin but about the significance of this unique landscape.
“We have even provided a translation into Japanese for those visitors who come from across the globe to visit this iconic site.” (Liz Roberts)
When we asked him for at least three film scores that he’d like to be remembered for, one of John’s picks was a surprise.
“I always remember certain passages in ‘Close Encounters…’ that I particularly enjoy playing with orchestras, away from film, so that may be indicative of something.”
He added, “And several movements of ‘Star Wars’ I also continue to have interest in as a performer. I did a television version of ‘Jane Eyre’ years ago (1970), directed by Delbert Mann. I wrote that new score in London many years ago. I have continued to enjoy revisiting that. So, in my case, that’s been a good measure of what I like that I have done in the past. If I don’t pick it out of the library and don’t want to perform it, it means that I don’t particularly want to return to it.” (Ruben V. Nepales)
10. The Brontë sisters: Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë were as close as sisters can be. They would've been each other's biggest Twitter fans, favoriting/retweeting each other every five minutes, spamming the hell out of their followers. Sweet? We guess. Annoying? Yeah, kinda.The Telegraph reviews All Change, by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
Anne Brontë would tweet: "RT @JaneEyre 'You know full well as I do the value of sisters' affections: There is nothing like it in this world.' CC @wutheringgirl" (Daniel Lefferts and Kristen Mascia)
Clary, the Duchy’s granddaughter, born in 1925, the same generation as Howard herself, is a talented novelist, struggling to bring up children and help support her husband, an impecunious artist. Before the children, she wrote two novels that were well received, but since then she has sobbed into the kitchen sink and taken on proofreading to pay the rent. There are fleeting references to Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen: both childless. (Ruth Scurr)The Wall Street Journal reviews several retellings of classical novels, including Minae Mizumura's A True Novel:
Minae Mizumura's "A True Novel" (Other Press, 854 pages, $29.95) is a fascinating example of a cross-cultural adaptation. In one of the sizable passages of meta-commentary that frame the narrative, the author explains that the rewriting of Western novels has been "a central project in the modern literary history of Japan." Here she tells a story that is a mix of "Wuthering Heights" and "The Great Gatsby."Zoë Triska chooses 'the biggest heartbreakers' in literature for The Huffington Post:
It centers on the magnetic Taro Azuma, recounting his bumpy rise in postwar Japan. In the highlands of Karuizawa (since converted to a popular resort town), the orphan Taro is taken in by a family of servants and supported by the aristocratic Saegusa clan. A perpetual outsider because of his low rank and half-Manchurian bloodline, he has no friends except Yoko, the sickly daughter of his employers. But though the two are in love, Yoko rejects Taro for a husband with better prospects. The spurned youth moves to Long Island and works his way up from chauffeur to "the most successful Japanese businessman in America." Despite his wealth, he moves back to the decaying cottage of his childhood, intent on reclaiming Yoko.
Ms. Mizumura's writing, smoothly translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, doesn't have anything close to the pitched intensity of Emily Brontë's, though her depiction of Taro contains elements of Heathcliff's consuming resentment: "His youth was no longer fresh and vigorous," she writes of Taro when Yoko throws him over, "but had settled like a thick sediment, with a stale smell to it." When, years later, Taro tries to lure a married Yoko to live with him in a mansion on Long Island's north shore built early in the 20th century by an "American nouveau riche," he summons the restless apparition of Jay Gatsby. (Sam Sacks)
Edward Fairfax Rochester Rochester from "Jane Eyre"Of course Rochester toys with Jane intentionally and... well, Heathcliff asks Catherine to be haunted by her.
Where to even begin with Rochester? We know some people like to think of "Jane Eyre" as a romantic story, but it certainly doesn't begin that way. I have always thought that Rochester KNOWS from the beginning that Jane has feelings for him, but that he toys with her intentionally. It honestly does appear that Rochester was courting Blanche Ingram, and not Jane. Who could blame Jane for thinking so? Also, when he proposes to Jane, he forgets to mention that he has his wife locked up in the attic. Yikes. (...)
Catherine Earnshaw from Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights"
Despite Catherine's love and adoration for her childhood best friend, Heathcliff, she decides that he's too low class for her and goes off and marries another. Heathcliff pines away for her, going so far as to leave in order to become a "gentleman." Catherine dies prematurely. Even after she DIES, she haunts him! How cruel is that?!
Mark, you can totally call us. We'll just be over here tearing through our copy of Jane Eyre.Financial Times talks about the evolution of the Oxford English Dictionary:
He talks also of the potential to embed OED content in ereaders so the meaning of a word such as “plisky” (a trick or an awkward situation) in Wuthering Heights (1847), not found in most dictionaries of current usage, could be revealed to the reader as he or she went along. (Lorien Kite)Kpopstarz mentions the including of a Wuthering Heights-inspired song in the soundtrack of the Korean TV series, Secret:
The highly successful melodrama Secret came to an end, this week, with actor Ji Sung providing vocals for the final soundtrack. Heights of Windstorms or Wuthering Heights draws inspiration on the prevailing theme of betrayal, secrets, and love lost that dominate both Secret and the novel,Wuthering Heights. Secret concluded with a strong ratings lead and with Ji Sung proving that his acting talent transcends into singing.Haaretz quotes from Eva Illouz's Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation:
From the Introduction: The Misery of LoveFrance Info (France) reviews Lady Hunt by Hélène Frappat:
"Wuthering Heights” (1847) belongs to a long literary tradition portraying love as an agonizingly painful emotion. The novel’s notorious protagonists, Heathcliff and Catherine, develop a strong love for each other while growing up together, yet Catherine decides to marry Edgar Linton, a socially more appropriate match. Humiliated when he accidentally overhears Catherine claim that she would degrade herself in marrying him, Heathcliff runs away. Catherine looks for him in the fields, and when she does not find him, she falls ill to the point of near-death.
Un roman qui marche sur les pas de chefs-d'oeuvre anglais comme Les Hauts de Hurlevent ou Rebecca, avec beaucoup de talent mais aussi de distance et d'humour. (Philippe Vallet) (Translation)YA? Yeah, Yeah! interviews the author Laura Summers:
Who was your first fictional crush?El Correo (Spain) lists films about love and passion including Wuthering Heights; St Margaret's Community Website has an interesting post on James Chesterton Bradley, the curate that inspired Charlotte Brontë's Mr Sweeting in Shirley quoting from original sources; Gedankengerüste, Gedankengelüste (in German) has not loved Wuthering Heights; Salmagundi recommends re-reading Jane Eyre; Practically Marzipan reviews one of its retellings, Tina Connolly's Ironskin; ARD (Germany) announces the airing the documentary Yorkshire - Land der Geister und Legenden (directed by Peter M. Kruchten) (3sat, November 16, 16.15 h) which includes mentions to the Brontës.
When I was a teenager I don’t really remember there being many books written particularly for my age group so when I ran out of books at the library (the Narnia series, Swallows and Amazons, Just William and masses of legends and fables were some of my childhood favourites), I jumped straight into books by Agatha Christie and classics like Jane Eyre. I definitely didn’t fancy Hercule Poirot so I think my first fictional crush has got to be Mr Rochester.
The upcoming Ilkley Literature Festival (Oct. 3rd - Oct. 19th 2008) contains several interesting Brontë-related events:Charlotte, the Brontes and Passion: Lyndall GordonIncidentally, Lyndall Gordon's Charlotte Brontë. A Passionate Life has been republished this month by Virago Press. These are the details:
Lyndall Gordon
Ilkley Playhouse Wildman
Saturday 4th October
3:15 PM - 4:15 PM
₤4.00 (Full Price) ₤3.00 (Concessions)
Lyndall Gordon the highly respected biographer of Charlotte Bronte (and, incidentally, of Mary Wollstonecraft, Eliot's early years and Henry James) turns her attention to Charlotte and her family. An acknowledged Bronte expert and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, Gordon is a Senior Research Fellow at St Hilda's College, Oxford and currently working on a biography of Emily Dickinson.
Lyndall Gordon the highly respected biographer of Charlotte Bronte turns her attention to Charlotte and her family
- Author(s): Lyndall Gordon
- ISBN: 1844084728
- ISBN-13: 9781844084722
- Publication Date: 04 Sep 2008
- Pages: 480 (198 x 126)
- Format: Paperback
- Published Price: £9.99
Daphne: Justine Picardie
Justine Picardie
Ilkley Playhouse Wildman
Saturday 4th October
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
₤4.00 (Full Price) ₤3.00 (Concessions)
Justine Picardie makes a welcome return to talk about her latest novel, Daphne, which, blurring fact and fiction, unravels the intriguing story of Daphne du Maurier’s obsession with renegade Bronte brother, Branwell.
Picardie, a former editor of the Observer Magazine and British Vogue and now a Sunday Telegraph Magazine columnist, was inspired by letters she discovered in the archives of the Bronte Parsonage at Howarth.
Please note the revised time of 6pm on Sat 4th October for this event.
Bells by Eddie Lawler
Saturday 4th October
9:15 PM - 10:15 PM
Free no need to book
Saltaire’s young team of bellringers went to Haworth this year to ring the bells in the Church where most of the Brontë family lie buried in a vault. They rang so loud they managed to waken the dead, briefly……..
They tell the tale in this cameo version of Eddie Lawler’s Brontë musical Bells, which tries to catch the Bronte characters in song.
Ilkley at the Time of Charlotte Bronte (WALK)
Alex Cockshott
Outside Rombalds Hotel
Sunday 5th October and 12th October
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Sold Out Online
₤3.00 (no concessions)
Charlotte Bronte visited Ilkley in September 1853, liking it ‘exceedingly’ and longing to return. Local historian Alex Cockshott leads a fascinating historical walk around the Ilkley Charlotte knew, bringing to life the ‘wide streets and grand new hotels’ Charlotte and her friend Miss Wooler admired and revealing the subject of their intimate conversations..
This is a circular walk lasting 90 minutes.
Parking at Darwin Gardens.
Three Quartets: The Rossettis, the Mendelssohns and the BrontesOur thanks to Mr. Emberson for having alerted us to his appearance at the festival.
Ian Emberson
St Margaret's Church Hall - Ilkley
Saturday 11th October
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Free no need to book
Ian M. Emberson, writer, artist, former music-librarian and author of one book and many articles about the Brontes, focusses on the childhoods of three gifted families -discussing how this background influenced their later achievements. In each case we have four exceptional children, slightly apart from their immediate surroundings, yet ultimately blending different cultures in their mature creative activities.
Free fringe event.
Yorkshire Lives & Landscapes is the new book of Ian M. Emberson (active member of the Brontë Society and author of several Brontë-related books).More information in The Todmorden Today.TODMORDEN author Ian M Emberson unveiled his new book, Yorkshire Lives and Landscapes.The semi-autobiographical book, which was launched at the Bear Cafe in Rochdale Road, Todmorden, also attracted singer and composer Daniel Bath, who performed a specially composed song. He was accompanied by Anthony Brannick.
Mr Emberson, who has already written nine books, said: "The story is set within the framework of my life over the past 35 years.
"There are chapters on Yorkshire culture, walks, gardening, Asian arts, the Brontes and Todmorden. It is quite lavishly illustrated with photographs."
Mr Emberson, who has had poems and a study on Charlotte Bronte's works published said: "I am not quite sure how the idea grew in my mind. I have worked on it at intervals over the years.
"I was born in Essex, but I moved to Yorkshire 35 years ago and I would like to consider myself a Yorkshireman now."
Mr Emberson read extracts of his book at the launch and visitors enjoyed refreshments.
A new Brontë-inspired poetry collection has been published, Ian M. Emberson's Mourning Ring:Mourning Ring: Brontë related poemsA Dutch version of this information can be read on The Brontës.nl
by Ian M Emberson,
Angria Press, 2008, 20 pp. £3.00
ISBN 978 0 9521693 6 9
Mourning Ring: Brontë related poems by Ian M Emberson was published on October 1st 2008, and is a small collection of poems relating to the Brontës – their lives, writings and the landscapes associated with them. It is an expanded version of a previous publication Three Brontë Poems, and is lavishly illustrated by the author, with a picture on each page. The composer Robin Terry is working on a song-cycle based on the poems, and it is hoped that this will have its first performance in Haworth next year.
It is available from the Gift Shop, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth, Keighley, West Yorkshire. UK. BD22 8DR – telephone (01535) 642323; fax (01535) 647131; e-mail sales@bronte.org.uk
or direct from the publishers:
Angria Press, 1 Highcroft Road, Todmorden. UK. OL14 5LZ; telephone (01706) 812716; e-mail ianemberson@aol.com.
Website www.ianemberson.co.uk
Let's begin our newsround with some local papers which mention recent Brontë-related events. Keighley News covers the recent performance of the puppetry theatre company Frolicked at the Brontë Parsonage Museum (in the picture, Frolicked puppeteer Beka Haigh at work in the Bronte Parsonage Museum with the 'ghost' of one of the literary family's servant, source) Visitors to a Brontë shrine enjoyed a bonus — with no strings attached.And the Hebden Bridge Times reports a recent talk by Ian M. Emberson (who will also appear in the upcoming Ilkley Literature Festival)
Outdoor puppet theatre company Frolicked presented a specially commissioned show, at the Parsonage Museum, in Haworth.
Informal interactive performances were given in the Parsonage and its grounds.
Huddersfield-based Frolicked specialises in creating puppets and performing at interesting and unusual locations.
Currently on show at the parsonage is “My Life Dreams” — an exhibition of digitally manipulated photographs based on the Brontës by Swiss artist Annelies Strba.
And visitors also have a rare opportunity to see the famous portrait — on loan from the National Portrait Gallery — of Emily Brontë, painted by her brother Branwell.
AT the latest Heptonstall Women's Institute meeting Ian Emberson spoke about the Brontes.Some Brontëites now. From a member of the Creativesports's website staff:
I read Middlemarch when I was in graduate school and loved it, along with Eliot's The Mill on the Floss. But, then, the Victorian novel was my specialty genre, and I pretty much loved anything from that period, be it Coleridge or Dickens or the Brontë sisters or Thackery (sic) or whomever. (Lawr Michaels)Locus Magazine (September 2008) recommends Galen Beckett's The Magicians and Mrs. Quent:
A first novel, and first in a series, mingling Jane Austen-style comedy of manners with the Victorian gothic of Charlotte Brontë — and just a hint of Lovecraftian cosmic menace. The daughter of a mentally ill magician tries to keep her family together and find love while dealing with the disapproval of polite society and her demanding mother.And Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga and its Brontë references have arrived even in India:
But that reading may in fact be not all true. If anything, Meyer’s work is a romance. There are echoes from Austen and the Brontes (not just Charlotte, whom the author lists as a favourite, but Emily too).The National Review manages to slip a Brontë mention in a review of The Lincolns. Portrait of a Marriage:
The atmosphere is Wuthering Heights and if you didn’t get that, there are enough references to the classic to drive home the point. But more than that the Twilight Saga most definitely reminded me of Mills & Boon. (Anoothi Vishal in Business Standard)
A man who thought himself damned by a “devilish passion” for a girl would not only have been morbidly sensitive, as Lincoln was always to be, to that which is hellish in life, he might also have adopted, as his own pet theory, the Romantic idea that the syphilitic sufferer, though foredoomed to madness, receives compensatory gifts of creative power and visionary insight. Byron’s Manfred, Poe’s Roderick Usher, and the heroes of Hugo, Balzac, and the Brontë sisters are variations on the 19th-century theme that genius is in many cases allied to diabolic depravity. (Michael Knox Beran)A couple of Australian news sites review the ongoing performances of Polly Teale's Brontë in Brisbane. Let's begin with the positive one. Amy Hyslop on Australian Stage (picture source
)Just like being rich and thin it seems that the Brontë sisters will never go out of style and thank God for that. Presented by ThreeSisters Productions, a group aiming to “shine light on female voices and characters”, Brontë is the second play written by Brontë obsessive Polly Teale to be performed in Brisbane this year.And now the negative one by Sue Gough in The Courier Mail:
It examines the short lives of sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and the complex reasons behind the desire of three such naturally reclusive women to write works of passionate, uncompromising fiction. Removing the sisters from their mythology and placing them squarely in the domestic, Teale’s script brims with real human warmth, passion and humour without sacrificing any of the romanticism without which any play about the sisters would be incomplete.
Sue Rider’s direction is excellent and she has elicited wonderful performances from her young cast who all rise to the considerable challenges of Teale’s densely packed, demanding script. Rebecca Roberts is engaging as the unworldly Anne and Hannah Levien brings a stern, passionate pragmatism to ambitious Charlotte.
Ron Kelly delivers wonderfully nuanced performances in a number of different roles including Patrick Brontë and Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre) and Kerith Atkinson brings a disturbing undercurrent to Cathy (Wuthering Heights) and Bertha (Jane Eyre).
But the standout performances come from Kevin Spink and Kathryn Marquet as Branwell and Emily. In the difficult role of the lost brother who of all the siblings most desired celebrity but was least blessed with talent Spink is totally convincing, showing us not only Branwell’s rage but his vulnerability too. Kathryn Marquet, who I last saw as Bertha Mason in Harvest Rain’s recent production of Jane Eyre, really delivers as the complex Emily, the deeply reclusive sister with one foot in the grave and her head in the clouds.
Considering the challenges of size and location the Sue Benner theatre presents to any production, let alone one seeking to impart a gothic Victorian atmosphere, Brontë is remarkably atmospheric. The set design by Kitty Taube makes the most of the tiny stage cleverly placing the audience inside a recreation of a recreation of the Brontë household.
Stephen Brodie’s sound design is hauntingly beautiful and the costumes by Carolyn Taylor-Smith are a refreshing departure from the usual period fare being thoughtfully designed to harmonise with every element of the production without slavishly copying period style.
If I have one criticism it would be that no one managed a real Yorkshire brogue but it’s a small point in the scheme of things. Brontë is a wonderful production showcasing some of Brisbane’s most talented new performers and is a must for any Brontë fan.
POLLY Teale is an English playwright and director who has a fascination for bringing the works of the revered Bronte sisters to the stage. (...)The National Post thinks that the fashion designers' autumn creations are somewhat gloomy:
In this more recent work, Bronte, she narrates the tragic history of the entire family.(...)
It is appropriate that the production is directed by Sue Rider because she has a long list of credits for writing, directing and acting in plays about women and women's issues.
Set designer Kitty Taube's backdrop is a blown-up page of handwritten manuscript that doubles as a clever screen behind a simple kitchen setting and Jason Glenwright's lighting creates the perfect mood.
The ambience is completed by composer Kylie Morris's hauntingly atmospheric soundscape.
Having set the scene so well, it's a pity the play can't live up to its introduction.
The trouble is that Bronte is first and foremost educational, sometimes tediously so, even though Teale, while remaining fairly faithful to the historical facts, attempts to spice things up by taking some liberties with both characterisation and motivation and also with suggestions of incest, smouldering sexual frustration and sibling envy.
This does not get around another fault: The play feels as if it was written 30 years ago.
The extended exposition - the repetition rather than reworking of feminist critique - and the endless philosophical rhetoric do nothing to explain the central mystery of how the Bronte sisters, who lived all their lives in extreme isolation on the Yorkshire Moors, conjured up such wild passion in their work.
Teale tries to show how domestic torments caused by their alcoholic brother Branwell (Kevin Spink) provided inspiration, but this is somewhat facile.
The least-famous of the sisters, Anne (Rebecca Roberts), is the quieter foil for the ambitious Charlotte (Hanna Levien) and the wildly melancholic Emily (Kathryn Marquet).
As their frustrations multiply, we see these projected into their written characters and Kerith Atkinson, doubling as Cathy from Wuthering Heights, and the lunatic Bertha from Jane Eyre, invades the action, one moment a frail creature in white, the next a writhing lost soul in scarlet rags.
While the London production opted, accurately, for Irish accents for the sisters - such was their isolation that they spoke like their father - Rider has settled for a Yorkshire burr and the actors handle this well.
Ron Kelly is outstanding in his multiple roles and Kathryn Marquet has the dramatic endurance to sustain a very believable Emily.
It may well be the fault of the playwright that the remaining actors seem trapped in a rather mediocre melodrama.
When preparing for their autumn collections, fashion designers must have been boning up on Wuthering Heights and Edgar Allan Poe, because their collections plumb the inky depths of black on black on black. (Nathalie Atkinson)And we have a Heathcliff sighting on an article in The Independent Love & Sex section:
As a child, I was always drawn to the tortured rogues like Heathcliff in literature, even though he was cruel to animals, beat his wife and wound up miserable and dead. Despite the fact that I was a confident, independent woman who has succeeded in many facets of life, in the past I have been emotionally immature when it comes to relationships. (Catherine Townsend)On the blogosphere, Mademoiselle J briefly posts about Jane Eyre 2006 (in Swedish), nastia: pretty in pink posts about Charlotte Brontë and things mean a lot devotes a post to Jane Eyre.
The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 63. April 2014. ISSN 1344-5940).ARTICLES
Letter from the Editor by Helen Krispien
Letter from the Chairman by Sally McDonald, Chairman The Brontë Society Council
Report from the Executive Director by Ann Sumner, Executive Director of the Brontë Society
Brussels, Brontë, Jenkins: a descendant of Evan Jenkins visits Brussels by Helen MacEwan, Brussels Brontë Group
The Parsonage Garden
The Riots at S- by Ian M. Emberson.
Ian Emberson 1936-2013 by Bob Duckett, former editor of Gazette and Brontë Studies
Parsonage People: Charlotte Derry, Membership and Development Officer
Poetry Corner: The Moor by David Havens
Why I Dislike Heathcliff by Andy Mydellton, CEO Foundation for Endangered Species & Wildlife Zone
Membership News: Dame Margaret Drabble will pick best short story; Launching the year-long 120th anniversary programme of the oldest literary society in the English speaking world, at Christie's in London; Study Day: Words of War; In Memoriam: Frank Kilner; Last Reminder: Brontë Society Conference 2014; New book on the Brontës in Brussels: The Brontës in Brussels by Helen MacEwan; The Brussels Brontë Group takes a virtual walk through the Isabelle Quarter with Eric Ruijssenaars.
The Brontë Parsonage Blog publishes an article about the recent Brontë Society Weekend Conference, The Brontës and their Background. There's a difference from the programme that we published last month:Tom Winnifrith was in hospital so unfortunately could not contribute. Instead, a forum took place in his time slot, chaired by Robert Barnard.The conference is summarized by Marcia Zaaijer like this:
Every speaker impressed me with something to do or to remember. So many details of life in the Brontës’ Haworth, that both Steven Whitbread and Ian Dewhurst were able to present! Ian Dewhurst spoke in the kind of language, that in my Dutch imagination I like to think sounds like the language the Brontës heard around them. (...)In the picture (from left to right) Stephen Whitehead, Brian Wilks, Robert Barnard, Elizabeth Leaver, Ian Emberson during the forum. More pictures on the Brontë Parsonage Blog post.
Really, maybe I should go and attend school in South Africa: I love the way Elisabeth Leaver championed Anne and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. With a bit of luck some Afrikaners might understand my Dutch.
Making Bread from Emily Bronte Re-collects
The floured board, accustomed fingers
kneading dough - how I love
to make the bread, as Tabitha once did.
I made her teach me. I was a mere child then.
It seemed a ritual and still does.
Why then does the mind stray
when making bread? It leaves behind
this fire-lit kitchen and is free to wander.
It always did. Poems come best
roaming the moors or kneading dough. (Read more)
The latest issue of The Brontë Society Gazette is now out (Issue 55. September 2011. ISSN 1344-5940).ARTICLESCategories: Brontë Society, Journals
In the Autumn edition... by Helen Krispien
My Favourite Brontë... by Paloma Ríos Prieto, Constance Renfrow and Pat Marshall.
Letter from the Chairman by Sally McDonald, Chairman of Council and Doreen Harris, Council Secretary.
Brontë Society AGM Weekend:
Interview with Salley Vickers by Rosemary Waxman
Michael Lofthouse and Friends by Ken and Beryl Snape
Annual Lecture by Ian Dewhirst by Doreen Harris
Withering Looks at the Brontë Society by Judith Bland
Walk to Ponden Hall by Brian Speak
Miss Branwell's Companion Saves the Day by Alexandra Lesley
Concert in Haworth Church by Isobel Stirk
Excursion to Kildwick and Gawthorpe Hall by Chris Went
Stop Press- Ireland Excursion by Ruth Battye
Poetry Corner: The Tenants by Melissa Parker; The Peewits by P H Holtam; Top Withins by Sue Benwell; The Fire of Emily Brontë by Sharon Marshall
Membership News:Spring Walk by Judith Yeadon and Judith Bland
A Visit to Northern Ireland by Sally McDonald
The Making of The Brontë Boy by Michael Yates.
Truth is stranger than Brontë fiction by Mary A. Haigh.
Parsonage People: Judith Bland
Anglo-Japanese Brontës by Judith Bland
Save the Lost Dance... by Amanda J. Hadleigh
Fathers and Faces: Brussels Brontë Group Weekend by Emily Waterfield.
A Price above Rubíes by Pat MarshallIn Memoriam: Mabel Ferrett by Ian Emberson
Mrs Olive Richardson
Brontë Studies: online Following up members requests at the AGM by Sally McDonald
Jane Eyre : contrasting the book and film by Helen Krispien
Brontë Studies online (3/24)
Brontë Society AGM Weekend HaworthCategories: Brontë Society
Friday 3rd June - Monday 6th June 2011
Friday 3 June
1pm Donors Event.
Finger buffet with wine. Baptist Centre, West Lane. By invitation only.
3.30pm Novelist Salley Vickers reads and discusses her work, including her most recent novel, Dancing Backwards. Salley Vickers is the author of six novels including the bestseller, Miss Garnet's Angel. An admirer of the Brontës, she has written the introduction to the Hesperus Press edition of Charlotte Brontë's The Secret. The Baptist Centre, West Lane.
6.30pm A supper of cheese and wine. Followed by a great evening of light entertainment provided by Haworth's Gilbert & Sullivan group. The Baptist Centre, West Lane.
Saturday 4 June
11.00am Annual Brontë Society Lecture by Mr. Ian Dewhirst, speaking on Haworth and the Brontës.
To be followed by the announcement of the Literary competition winners.
2.00pm: Annual church service at the Parish Church, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of Patrick Brontë. Address given by Rev. Paul Slater. Collection in aid of church funds.
3.00pm Afternoon Tea, Ashmount Mews.
4.30pm Annual General Meeting of the Brontë Society.
The Baptsit Centre, West Lane
8.00 pm Lip Service: Withering Looks. West Lane Baptist Centre.
Sunday 5 June
10.30am Angela Crow will talk about her latest book Mrs. Brontë and answer questions about the Branwell family. Parsonage Cellar
12 noon Ann Dinsdale will be leading a walk to and around Stanbury and Ponden. The afternoon will include a tour of Ponden Hall, and tea at Ponden House, for half the party at a time.
5.00pm Ian Emberson & Musicians performing his Brontë Song Cycle. Parish Church of St.Michael's and All Angels.
From 6.30pm: Informal Evening and Quiz. The Old White Lion.
Monday 6 June
Excursion to Stonegappe, Lothersdale, Kildwick and Gawthorpe Hall.
Morning coffee at Kildwick, a short entertainment from Angela Crow and Richard Wilcocks, and a talk from Isobel Stirk about Lothersdale Church. Guided tour of Gawthorpe, home of Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth.
Tuesday 7 June
11.00am onwards. Angela Crow will be in the Art Gallery, South Square, Thornton. You might like to bring a sketch or picture on a Brontë theme.
[T]his Saturday, September 29, he presents one of the fringe events held at the town’s St Margaret’s Church Hall at 6 pm.Indeed, his talk could be the same one he gave at last year's Brontë Conference and which can now be read in the latest issue of Brontë Studies as it has the same title.
He gives a talk called The Likeness of a Kingly Crown: John Milton’s Influence on Charlotte Bronte. Ian has a life-long interest in the work of the Brontes and is the author of many articles on the subject.
This talk develops themes from his 2005 Bronte Society publication Pilgrims From Loneliness: An Interpretation of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Vilette - the strong influence of John Milton’s writing on Charlotte Bronte.
Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us haven't pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system. (Alexandra Adornetto)The full poem can be read here.
Presented in full-screen, both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre come housed in individual slimline snap cases, and are in turn jointly housed in an attractive, single cardboard slipcase. Jane Eyre’s bonus features include interviews with the cast and crew, a small collection of deleted scenes, hour-long audio commentaries for two of the episodes, and trailers from the program’s original British broadcast on BBC. [...] B+ (Movies) B- (Disc)This answers the questions BrontëBlog readers had regarding the Brontë Collection, though we had already been told by the WGBH Customer Care Center that Jane Eyre did indeed include the deleted scenes as well as the rest of the extras included on the original British DVD (unlike on the PBS DVD)
This weekend is full of Brontë-related events. Not only the Radical Brontës festival is still going-on, not only the new Jane Eyre will be aired by the BBC... the Brontë Society also celebrates its 2006 Brontë Society Weekend Conference.Friday 22 September to Sunday 24 September
The Baptist Centre, West Lane, Haworth
The Brontës and their Background
Speakers and provisional lecture titles
- Stephen Whitehead The Haworth the Brontës knew
- Bob Duckett Where did the Brontës get their books?
- Ian Dewhirst The real Haworth, Myths and Anecdotes
- Ian Emberson John Milton's influence on Charlotte
Categories: Brontë_Society, Talks, ScholarPlus, an afternoon visit to Thornton and the Shirley country or a guided walk around
- Yukari Oda ‘Wuthering Heights’ and the Waverley novels: Scott’s influence on Emily
- Elizabeth Leaver Why the Brontës wrote as they did
- Tom Winnifrith The Brontës and their foreground: Religion and the Brontës
- Brian Wilkes Charlotte Brontë and the Two Churches
historic Haworth.
Unless explicitly said
