A blue plaque for Branwell Brontë

The Yorkshire Post reports that a blue plaque has been installed to mark the connection between Branwell Brontë and Sowerby Bridge station.

A blue plaque has been installed at Sowerby Bridge railway station to commemorate Branwell Brontë’s connection with the town and its first railway station.
The Friends of Sowerby Bridge Railway Station commissioned the plaque as part of a wider project by the group to promote the Brontë link and the work was supported with a Calderdale Council grant.
The original railway station was around 500 yards away from the existing one and Brontë was employed there as assistant clerk in charge, after his attempt to join the Royal Academy of Art had failed in 1836.
The appointment was confirmed in board papers of 1840 and after a spell there he was promoted and moved to Luddenden Foot by the Manchester and Leeds Railway. His connection with the railway ended when he was sacked in 1842 over a financial discrepancy.
The plaque has been installed on the exterior wall of the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms, which are part of the original present railway station and close to the newly created Brontë garden, another 
initiative from the “friends” group, which will be planted with 
species which featured in Brontë novels.

Sill locally, the Spenborough Guardian celebrates the success of the first North Kirklees Literary festival.

The festival, which took place last weekend, based at Red House Museum, was organised to celebrate the rich literary history of the area, including its links to the Brontë sisters.
Organiser David Pinder said: “It was a shot in the dark to organise a literary festival in North Kirklees. We thought it was a good idea but until we ran it, we didn’t realise how popular it would be.
“Because of the enthusiasm of the people who came, and the quality of the speakers, we are determined to do another one next year.”
Jazz singer Val Wiseman was a hit with her concert at Whitechapel Church, presenting a tribute to the Brontë family in a series of songs based on their poetry and characters from their novels.
Prof Ann Sumner, Brontë society executive director, gave a lecture discussing the relationship between the Brontës and the railway.
She said she was honoured to be the inaugural speaker and she very much enjoyed being at Red House.
Church warden Tom Pinder said the church, where Patrick Brontë’s niece Rose Ann Heslip is buried, was the perfect venue for the event. “The concert was absolutely riveting. Val Wiseman has a beautiful voice and she is a very accomplished artiste.” (Lauren Ballinger)

Bill Bryson is interviewed by The Boston Globe.

BOOKS: Did your reading change when you moved to England?
BRYSON: Moving not only changed it but also filled it out. I grew up in Des Moines. My dad had a house full of books, things like P.G. Wodehouse books and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë. I would read these books and enjoy them but they didn’t mean anything to me. When I moved to this country, I finally understood them. I can remember what a great feeling it was. (Amy Sutherland)

The Jewish and Israel News features Harvey Rachlin, co-creator of the comic strip The Menschkins.

For his next book, Rachlin decided that all he had to do was add a Jewish twist to a classic novel. Some ideas he came up with were “Moby Fleisha-Dick”; “Plotz and Prejudice”; “Don Chutzpahxote”; “The Bubbala in the Rye”; “Frankenstein and the Matzoh Ball Martini”; “Jane ‘Oy Veis’ M’Eyre”; “The Three Mitzvateers”; and “The Tzaddick of Oz.” The plot of the last title, he explained, was that after a cyclone uproots young Miriam’s house on a Russian shtetl, she finds herself alone and lost in a dark forest but eventually comes across an assortment of characters, including those good-hearted little people—the Menschkins.

While The Heights features a Boston College professor whose novel has been longlisted for the National Book Award.

A neat pile of ungraded student papers sits on professor Elizabeth Graver’s desk in Stokes Hall. Her latest novel, longlisted for the National Book Award, rests on her bookshelf near other literary classics—quite possibly those of her favorite authors: Virginia Wolfe [sic], Charlotte Brontë, and Toni Morrison. (Ariana Igneri)

An article from The Spectrum ('the independent student publication of the University at Bufffalo') warns against the dangers of binge drinking by erroneously quoting from Charlotte Brontë.

You are ultimately responsible for your choices, and as the years pass, you will ultimately be the one to judge them.
As Charlotte Brontë once wrote: “In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”

We can't be 100% sure but overall the Internet seems to attribute that quote to Stefan Zweig.

Niekończące się marzenia writes in Polish about Jane Eyre.