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Friday, July 22, 2022

A Home Instead press release on their purple plaques initiative:
The new plaques, created by leading home care company Home Instead, appeared overnight hung next to existing plaques at locations in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast.
The honours have been created to highlight the unique contribution made to society by extraordinary elderly people who were put forward by friends and family after a nationwide callout.
Blue plaques on houses and public buildings honouring Charles Dickens, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Seacole, Charlotte Bronte and Captain Scott were among the chosen locations for the campaign which has sparked a national debate on ageism.
The public, in every location without exception, reacted positively to the new plaques and the ordinary people they celebrate. A film showing the plaques being secretly installed and the public's reaction can be seen here.
Some of those honoured include:
Rhona Dunn - a devoted volunteer who taught literacy and numeracy in prisons. Her purple plaque was put up next to writer Charlotte Bronte's blue plaque in Manchester. It was at this location, Boundary Street West, that Brontë began to write her first successful novel Jane Eyre.
Tanya Gold reviews Persuasion 2022 ("This version was so bad — and boring too, which is extraordinary for a book of such jeopardy") in The Jewish Chronicle:
The famous criticism of Austen is that she is parochial, but that is absurd. I love her for her cadences and her character studies and her (not Jewish, but could be) irony. It is true, the Brontës are less afraid of emotion, being Irish and Cornish, and they wrote gleefully about suicide, manslaughter and attempted murder. I love this too, but it can be exhausting. Jane Eyre is a masterpiece, but it is not ruminative, though there is a randy priest at the end, for comedy.
By the way, Acento (Dominican Republic) talks about Persuasion by Jane Eyre, a classic blunder that never ceases to amuse. Talking about blunders, Paste Magazine is not quite accurate in this review of the film Ali & Ava:
Ali & Ava is [Clio] Barnard’s second movie set in Bradford, a northern English city not known as a hotspot for romance (despite being the birthplace of the Brontë sisters!). (Chloe Walker)
Study International talks about the Queen Ethelburga's Collegitate:
Oiginally founded in 1912, Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate has proven itself to be an educational establishment worthy of the QEGUK Quality Assurance Validation – an award only bestowed on schools committed to the highest standards of performance where international student provision is concerned. It is the first school in the UK to have achieved this.
The school began its life in Harrogate and moved to Thorpe Underwood Estate, a 220-acre site that was once home to literary great Anne Brontë.

Perhaps home is too strong a word to define Anne's stay in Thorpe Green Hall. 

The New York Stage Review reviews the Broadway adaptation of The Kite Runner:
When Amir meets Soraya (Azita Ghanizada), the woman he’ll eventually marry, she has her nose buried in Wuthering Heights. “Sad stories make good books,” she comments. (Melissa Rose Bernardo)
Halifax Courier announces a local property in the market:
If living in a Grade ll Listed home within a lovely Calderdale village, with grounds that have woodland and a stream, and stunning scenery on the doorstep, is your dream, then this place should ignite your interest.
You can even walk to a Listed Inn that was once the haunt of Branwell Brontë, which reputedly hosted the first public library in one of its rooms. (Sally Burton)

We suppose they mean the Lord Nelson Inn at Luddenden. 

Harper's Bazaar describes summer pieces at the Dôen Warehouse Sale:
Even if you wouldn't describe your style as "romantic" or "missing Brontë sister," you'll find something to wear on repeat: Dôen's more subdued lace blouses are perfect with '90s denim, while a new line of swimsuits are unquestionable vacation material. (Halie Lesavage)
The New York Times interviews the writer Ruth Ware:
By the Book: You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
R.W.: The temptation here is to say “Chaucer, Shakespeare and Emily Brontë” to show how well read you are, and there would certainly be something quite fascinating about the chance to solve some of the mysteries of Shakespeare’s life, like why did he leave his wife nothing but his second-best bed? However, honestly, I think it would be too much pressure for me to enjoy my food.
We read in Cynopsis how
Woodcut International has extended its reach into live theatrical filmed productions in partnership with one of the UK’s Bristol Old Vic. The deal sees Woodcut International appointed worldwide distributor for two stage plays, “Touching the Void” and “Wuthering Heights.”
Vancouver Sun interviews the writer Jasmine Sealy:
Dana Gee: What is the genesis of this story?
J.S.: I had the idea to write a short story from (the main character) Calypso’s point of view, reimagining her as an actual young woman living on a Caribbean island. I was greatly inspired by Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and giving voice to the woman scorned.
Jotdown (Spain) reviews the Spanish edition of Glass Town by Isabel Greenberg:
Literatura y tragedia, sinónimos de Brontë, enlazan en La ciudad de cristal con el tema recurrente de Isabel Greenberg: la reivindicación del arte de contar historias y su poder creador, con la voz de las mujeres por delante. Asistimos a la génesis del universo literario de Charlotte, Emily, Anne y Branwell Brontë, y al desmoronamiento de esos reinos imaginarios cuando la muerte y sus turbulentas biografías resquebrajan la familia. Del juego infantil a un mundo editorial predominantemente masculino, el relato se centra tanto en sus cortas vidas como en un ejercicio metanarrativo que diluye fronteras entre realidad y ficción. El arte, de apariencia naíf y colores limitados, prima expresividad y cuidado en la composición de página sobre realismo o complejidad narrativa. Homenaje a las Brontë, oda a la imaginación y reivindicación de nuestro potencial creativo. (Translation)
Wiesbadener Kurier (Germany) tells some booksellers anecdotes and this one is hilarious:
Munteres Rätselraten im Alltag von Buchhändlern, was einst auch in der Suche eines Kunden nach dem Buch „Zehn Eier“ und gemeint war der Roman „Jane Eyre“ von Charlotte Brontë gipfelte, wie ein weiteres fast schon kryptisch anmutendes Beispiel der Buchhändler zeigte. (Claudia Kroll-Kubin) (Translation)

In German, Zehn Eier sounds vaguely like Jane Eyre but means a more mundane thing: ten eggs.

DiLei (Italy) lists love quotes (including one by Charlotte). You can see pictures of The Most Wuthering Heights Ever event that took place yesterday in Ghent in Nieuwsblad.

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