#SaveTheHonresfeldLibrary

The Brontë Society has an article on how you can help save the Honresfeld Library for the nation:

The news is exciting that the fabled Honresfeld Library has emerged from myth and obscurity to reveal its extraordinary treasures. But without immediate government intervention in the public interest, a national collection hidden for 100 years will soon be scattered piecemeal across the world—perhaps never to be seen.The first tranche is set to go under the hammer in July 2021. This is a library filled with unique and precious British treasures—manuscripts in the hands of Burns, Scott, Austen, the Brontës.  With national libraries and literary house museums, the public custodians of such materials, struggling to survive after a year of forced closure and lost revenue, this is not the moment to bring national treasures onto the international market.  Saved for the nation, this unrivalled collection will be a source of vital cultural revenue and creative renewal.  Retained as a coherent collection, it will repay scholarly investigation and provide enjoyment for all lovers of literature for the next 100 years.

In collaboration with other literary museums including Jane Austen's House, we have written to our local MPs to urge immediate action on this. If you would like to do the same, we have created a template letter for you to download and send. You can find this by clicking the button marked 'Downloads'.

If you are outside the UK and would like to help with this campaign, please keep sharing articles and posts on social media (#SaveTheHonresfeldLibrary) and watch this space for more ways to get involved.

The Independent and many, many others report a controversy surrounding Sinéad O'Connor and a recent comment made in an interview for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

O’Connor took particular exception to Barnett quoting a piece by a British music critic who said she had been pursued by her reputation as “the crazy woman in pop’s attic”.

Asked if she felt a male artist would have been judged differently, O’Connor said she found it “a bit extreme to make the Jane Eyre comparison”.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been perceived as the crazy woman in the attic as represented in Jane Eyre,” she said. “It’s not like I’m attacking people with knives or trying to strangle anyone or wandering around in my nightdress.” (Melanie Finn)

Besides, she can't possibly be Bertha Mason now because she was already cast as Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights 1992.

Folk Radio reviews the obviously inspired by Wuthering Heights album The Eternal Rocks Beneath by Katherine Priddy.

If you were to decamp the First Aid Kit sisters onto the Yorkshire Moors, you still probably wouldn’t end up with something as quietly captivating as Wolf. Inspired by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights don’t expect any Kate Bush theatrics here, just a subtle blend of Americana and English folk, gorgeously rendered and understated. [...]

Discussing the inclusion of her earliest songs here, Priddy revealed her reasoning behind the title: “It’s almost a way of packaging up this chapter of my life and drawing a line beneath it. The eternal rocks beneath – the foundations of what has been and the bedrock for whatever follows next.” (David Weir)

Mirror on Glorious Britain and why tourists are attracted to visit.

They come to see our glorious heritage, whether it’s the Brontë Story in ancient Haworth, the steam railways of Keighley and the Worth Valley and North York Moors, or the two-thousand year history of York. (Paul Routledge)

Kalamazoo College features a professor who wants more diversity in Victorian Studies.

“A lot of what we’ve been doing in the project is creating resources to help instructors teach materials like Mary Seacole’s,” [Associate Professor of English Ryan] Fong said. “She wrote an important travelogue and memoir about her experiences, and the teaching materials on the site will help teachers contextualize this work and teach it alongside people that we already know and love like Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. We’re hoping that we’re giving scholars tools to incorporate new materials into their classes or perhaps even conceive and remake whole new classes.” (Andy Brown)

The Trend Spotter on the Dark Academia trend.

10. Dark Academia Aesthetic

The Dark Academia trend has been a popular choice for several years. Easily identifiable and perfectly blended into current trends, this aesthetic primarily focuses on classical literature – including works by the Brontë sisters, Oscar Wilde, and Jane Austen – Romantic and Neo-Classic imagery and colors. The dominant shades often include black, dark brown, charcoal, and forest green – its influences stem from the art style of Baroque and Renaissance for its decadence and eye for detail, and Gothic for its scholarly roots, and dark tones. Typically you can embody this aesthetic with black turtleneck, checked trousers, brogues, and varying shades of brown. Layer coats with blazers, mix monochromatic ensembles, and enter a world of Byronic Heros and literary excellence. (Ally Feiam)