Literary snobbery is nonsense

The Yorkshire Post reports that the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is in trouble due to lockdown restrictions.

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway have now launched an emergency appeal for public donations after failing to secure government assistance.
Operations manager Noel Hartley admits that if the preserved line is closed for six months then it may not be able to re-open and operate in its previous form. They need around £200,000 to maintain the railway during the lockdown period. [...]
At the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway - which appears in the new Netflix period drama The English Game - salaried staff have been put on furlough.
"We have got some help from the government with salaries and we are currently investigating what else is available to us, however they have been fairly silent on assistance for charities," said Mr Hartley.
"If we go over six months closed then things start to get difficult for us. We are looking for £200,000 to secure our attraction for 2021 in the same form that it was before."
The KWVR plays a key role in tourism in the Worth Valley, as it carries passengers to Haworth - the home of the Brontë sisters - and is involved in the popular Haworth 1940s Weekend, with ticket-holders encouraged by the festival's organisers to arrive by train. [...]
There are 700 volunteers manning the railway, which runs from Keighley to Oxenhope and connects with mainline services at Keighley Station. The entire operation closed to the public on March 20 and has been 'mothballed' except for essential maintenance.
The Worth Saving appeal has been set up to encourage supporters of the railway to donate towards its upkeep.
Chairman Matt Stroh said: "Without income, cash reserves are disappearing fast and the railway needs help to survive as the fantastic example of living history that it is today.
"Any donation, large or small, would be hugely appreciated by the volunteer team at the KWVR and will go that step further to protecting its future.
"These are unprecedented times for the Brontë Country line and without the help of supporters we will struggle to keep the railway as the leading Yorkshire attraction that it is today. If many people give whatever they can afford, it would make a huge difference to us."
The railway is already having to pay for repairs to several diesel locomotives that suffered water damage during floods caused by Storm Ciara in February, when the beck beside the engine shed in Haworth overflowed. (Grace Newton)

The story also appears on Yorkshire Live. To donate to the Keighley and Worth Valley's Worth Saving appeal, click here.

About Manchester has Tom Walker, Publishing Director at The Folio Society, recommend 'his top 10 picks of books to read whilst in self-isolation'. The first of which is

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Being stuck at home and only allowed out to go to the shops seems a good time to read about feminism, and this is arguably the first feminist novel. Wildly surprising in its modern sensibility, Brontë rages against a society that held women shackled to men and the home. (Nigel Barlow)

The Daily Mail also recommends 'losing yourself' in the classics.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The only novel published by the most mythologised of the Brontë sisters, this Gothic melodrama shocked and baffled Victorian readers but has inspired cult-like devotion ever since — not to mention a chart-topping single by Kate Bush.
Named after the Yorkshire manor house at its heart, it’s a tangled tale turning on the incestuous passion between a gruff, brooding landlord, Heathcliff, and his foster sister Catherine, whose decision to marry for status, not love, sets off a thunderous chain reaction felt through the decades.
It’s an unruly cocktail of ghostly goings-on, savage violence and shivery romance.

The Irish Times interviews writer Andrea Carter.

What book changed the way you think about fiction? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë is astounding. Published in 1848, it deals with themes of domestic abuse, alcoholism and feminism, but has a mystery at its heart. It made me realise that literary snobbery is nonsense, that there is nothing wrong with wanting your readers to keep turning the pages.

Book Marks interviews writer Rebecca Dinnerstein Knight.

BM: Favorite re-read? RDK: Jane Eyre. Daily lessons in soul integrity and the sublime.

The Sisters' Room looks at the errors on Anne Brontë's grave and death certificate. Reading Litty's April’s Book Club Pick is Wuthering Heights.