Save Haworth's Post Office

The Brontë Society is encouraging its members to sign a petition in order to try to save Haworth's Post Office as reported by The Telegraph and Argus.

The Brontë Society has stepped in to help to save Haworth’s historic Post Office.

The society wrote a Facebook post to their loyal Brontë following, encouraging them to sign a petition for Post Office Ltd to review its plans.

It states:

”Many of our followers will be aware that our local post office, located at the top of Haworth's historic Main Street, is under threat of closure.

As well as being of huge importance to our neighbours at this end of the village, the Brontë Society and Brontë Parsonage Museum use this branch on a daily basis to post out parcels from our online shop and send out mail to our members across the world. 

We also know our visitors use it to send postcards and souvenirs. This service matters to us, and if it matters to you, we ask that you sign this petition urging Post Office Ltd to review its plans. Thank you.”

The suggested move of the branch has caused controversy amongst the villagers and tourists as Post Office Ltd is proposing to shut the Main Street premises and open a facility within the new Co-op store, in Station Road.

The petition states that ‘the Co-op is at least a 15-minute walk away, down a very steep hill, which will make access very difficult for people who live around the top of Haworth. In ice and snow, it will be practically impossible to access safely on foot.’

Opponents of the move say it would hit many residents and businesses who use the current branch and would struggle to reach the Co-op, as well as the thousands of tourists who visit the village every year.

Keighley MP Robbie Moore, whose constituency includes Haworth met with the Save Haworth Post Office campaign group committee ahead of a protest it held in the village.

He said: “It is great that a campaign group of passionate local residents has been formed to raise awareness of this huge potential loss to our historic village.

“Moving the post office away from the centre of the village down an extremely steep hill makes no sense whatsoever.

As we emerge from the Covid pandemic, we need to make our villages and their amenities more accessible to residents and tourists – not create barriers.” (Chelsie Sewell)

The Yorkshire Post asks for common sense to prevail in the matter.

Post Office bosses say the facility on Main Street is no longer viable; villagers say the walk to another branch at the Co-op in Station Road is impractical, particularly for the elderly in inclement weather.

Either way, the closure plan should be put on hold until a consultation exercise is carried out that commands the confidence of the local community – a threshold not yet met by Post Office Ltd.

After all, there are countless examples where a positive dialogue between the two sides has actually led to alternative plans being agreed from branches opening in pubs to a mobile post office being set up. And the same can happen in Haworth, a historic village also synonymous with cycling, if there’s sufficient will to find a solution which can then receive the stamp of approval.

Sad times. Again, sign the petition here.

The Michigan Daily feels the need to write 'In defense of the English major'.

While you likely will never need to deconstruct an Emily Dickinson poem or explore the extent to which “Jane Eyre” is a feminist novel in your future job, the critical thinking and communication skills these tasks require are applicable anywhere. Regardless of the context, the ability to articulate a message, support that message and create meaning within that message is a widely marketable skill. On a more basic level, being able to cogently write an email to your colleagues, critically read a proposal or paperwork and clearly communicate your thoughts are all fundamental job responsibilities that the English curriculum highlights. (Olivia Mouradian)

Sad times again.

Times of India interviews writer Lucy Ellmann.

5. In an earlier interview, you shared that you don’t tend to read contemporary fiction. So which are your all-time favourite books and authors?

I like funny writers. The fiery and sincere too, as in Hardy’s work, or Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and the irrepressible Walt Whitman. But life would be poor, nasty, and brutish without the jokes of Rabelais, Chaucer, Sterne, Austen, Dickens, Joyce, Beckett, Narayan, Nabokov, Salinger, Molly Keane, Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek... The Fan Man, by William Kotzwinkle, is another favourite. Flaubert’s nicely ironic, and Tolstoy too can be inadvertently sardonic. The Kreutzer Sonata’s quite comical at times about the battle between the sexes. The homicidal husband claims that, since the mercantile realm (shopping) is largely aimed at them, women must have all the power. Like most murderers, he’s got everything backwards. (Surabhi Rawat)

Sol (Portugal) interviews Spanish writer Carmen Posadas and asks her what books by other authors she would like to have written.

E se tivesse oportunidade de levar outros?

Em primeiro lugar, pegaria n’A Metamorfose, de Franz Kafka, porque li-o com 18 anos e percebi que o mundo é definitivamente kafkiano! Depois, O Vermelho e o Negro, de Stendhal, porque foi um dos poucos livros nos quais não consegui parar de pensar. Também não poderia excluir o Orgulho e Preconceito de Jane Austen: lia-o, fazia relatórios, aprendia... Ela foi a escritora que quero ser. Por outro lado, O Monte dos Vendavais, de Emily Brontë, certamente seria problemático se fosse publicado hoje. Em Busca do Tempo Perdido, de Marcel Proust, está à altura de Cervantes e Shakespeare! Os meus livros preferidos destes são Dom Quixote e Macbeth. E o Guerra e Paz, de Lev Tolstói, apesar de sentir que, por mim, poderia saltar-se a parte da guerra. (Maria Moreira Rato) (Translation)

The Tribune (India) recommends 'Books for children to combat pandemic stress' such as

All children should read short stories of the masters, the classics. Not only are these of apt length, sustain the interest through the short swift actions of the protagonists, around myriad human-interest themes from varied genres such as science fiction, mystery, ghost stories to name a few. A must read also because of the dive into the minds of the masterly wordsmiths in such a compilation comprising, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Rabindranath Tagore, Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott and Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Oscar Wilde, Saki; and extracts from children’s classics such as The Railway Children and Little Women. With a host of popular characters such as Oliver Twist, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre and Dracula, introducing children to a range of enduring literature. What’s not to love! (Swati Rai)