How My Light is Spent

A new installation opens at the Brontë Parsonage Museum:

Frank Cottrell-Boyce: How My Light is Spent
Saturday 10 August - Tuesday 19 November 2019
An immersive installation combining light and sound

The life of Patrick Brontë was intercut with moments of extreme joy - at his marriage to Maria Branwell and at his children's success - but also with periods of profound sorrow. From humble beginnings as a weaver's apprentice, Patrick's life was transformed when he was offered lessons by a local minister who discovered him reading aloud from Milton's Paradise Lost. By sixteen, he was a school teacher, and he went on study at Cambridge University before being ordained as a clergyman and later settling in Haworth.
At seventy years old, having seen his wife and two of his children die, Patrick travelled to Manchester for a cataract operation. After the surgery, he lay still in a darkened room for weeks to heal, being cared for by Charlotte. It was at this time that she began to write Jane Eyre.
Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the Brontë Society's 2019 creative partner, has devised an innovative installation exploring Patrick Brontë's memories and imagination as he recovered from his cataract operation. How My Light is Spent invites visitors to enter the Parsonage Cellar to share Patrick's experience of darkness, hear the memories he held dear and see the dreams and visions he shared with Charlotte.
This immersive installation combines light and sound to create a memorable and moving experience for people of all ages.

BBC Radio 4's Front Row has more information:

The Reverend Patrick Brontë was ahead of his time, allowing his famous literary daughters to read freely and express their creativity. A new installation at The Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth has drawn inspiration from a period he spent in darkness recovering from a major eye operation. Brontë Society Creative Partner Frank Cottrell Boyce has worked with artist Jo Pocock, to illuminate the mundane objects of Rev Patrick Brontë's life to shed light on an underappreciated man.