Charlotte's Aberdeen Pesticides

The Yorkshire Post has the latest news on the Brontë birthplace.

While the Parsonage at Haworth – where the sisters wrote their novels – is a world-famous tourist attraction, less well known is that they were actually born some six miles away in Thornton.

The birthplace is marked with a plaque in the village’s market place and when the building’s current owner Mark de Luca decided it was time to sell up, a plan was formed to buy it and run as a community venture.

Campaigners from the South Square Centre hope to convert the house into a cafe and event space on the ground floor, and luxury holiday accommodation on the first floor to entice tourists who want to follow in the Brontë’s footsteps.

Some £450,000 is needed to purchase and convert the property, and campaigners were originally given a Christmas deadline which has now been extended well into next year.

A further £20,000 has been given in grant funding which has allowed campaigners to carry out feasibility studies on the property.

Retired academic Sarah Dixon, of the Brontë Birthplace project, said: “We’ve had architects draw up plans and had a condition survey done, and we’ll be going ahead soon with a structural survey.

“The owner has been an absolute brick. Originally we had until the end of December which in hindsight was a very short period of time, but now we’re discussing an option to extend for another 18 months.

“I haven’t come across a single person who isn’t in favour of this. We’ve done lots of local consultations and everyone has supported it.

“And we’ve got the Bradford City of Culture coming up, which we’re hoping to be heavily involved with.”

People who have donated to the crowdfunding campaign have shared their personal connections to the Brontë story online.

Mary Clare wrote: “I lived on the outskirts of Thornton for the two happiest years of my childhood. Seeing the (then) brass plaque on our regular trips to the nearby bakery inspired me to read Jane Eyre for the first time.

“I am now a writer and a poet.

“I have never understood why this property has not been more celebrated. Fingers crossed it’s time is now. I have visited the cafe and it's sad to see a venture close but perhaps this little house is at last going to become the literary shrine it should be.”

Sharon Wright wrote: “This was the house where Patrick and Maria Brontë and their gifted young children were happy. It should now rest safely and forever in the hands of the community, so it can be cherished and protected.” (Victoria Finan)

An article on Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly begins with a quote from chapter XXIX of Villette.

“Silence is of different kinds, and breathes different meanings.” — “Villette” by Charlotte Brontë Silence is not disclosure, except when it is. (Craig R. Smith and Kevin M. Eckert)

We don't know exactly what to say about this blunder/fake/scam/WTF denounced by Retraction Watch:

But the editors of the British Journal of Research would have readers believe that Faulkner and Whitman, along with other long-dead luminaries including Charlotte Brontë, of the Department of Basic Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, in the UK, and Herman Hesse, of the Department of Basic Sciences, University of Cologne, in Germany, wrote papers for a recent issue of the periodical. 

We learned about the bogus papers thanks to Dorothy Bishop, who tweeted about them Thursday. (Adam Marcus)

Apparently Charlotte Brontë now works at the Department of Basic Sciences, at the University of Aberdeen. Her latest paper bears the fascinating title of  "Adsorption-Photo Catalysis of Primarily Unmistakable Pesticides Utilizing Polythiophene". If you have something to say to her, (about the ending of Villette or the wonders of polythiophene), now you can, there's an email address.

Country Life lists "costume drama-worthy" properties on the market. In Hebden Bridge:

Yorkshire — £695,000

In the wild countryside not far from Haworth — where the Brontë sisters lived — you’ll find this home, formerly three 17th century cottages which have been converted into one residence.

This really is life in the country, a rural spot that’s 15 minutes in the car from Hebden Bridge, and with the famed Hardcastle Crags nearby. You’ll swear you’re able to hear Heathcliff roaming the Moors looking for Cathy. (Toby Keel)

And the Teesside Gazette selects staycation holidays for 2023:

Moor Skies – Oxenhope, West Yorkshire

Sleeps: Two

Price: Seven nights from £357 in August

Moor Skies is a shepherd’s hut surrounded by the rolling hills of Yorkshire, near the village of Oxenhope. This romantic bolthole is located on the owner’s grounds, and guests can enjoy a late evening meal on the patio warmed by the chimenea, before visiting the horses on the nearby paddock.

There are plenty of footpaths in the area for a romantic stroll, including walks around the reservoirs and the Brontë Falls. Brontë Way, a local walking trail, will take guests to Brontë Bridge and out onto the moors to find Top Withens, an old farmhouse which is said to have been the inspiration for the Earnshaw’s family home in Wuthering Heights. (Daniel Smith)

The Boston Globe reviews Allegra Goodman's novel Sam:

To declare that a novel about a child or teenager should be sold, marketed, and classified as YA (Young Adult) is a judgment fraught with the peril of mistaking the range of its appeal. “Great Expectations,” “Jane Eyre” (which Sam’s friend Halle reads here), Claire Keegan’s “Foster,” and L.P. Hartley’s “The Go-Between” are all classic adult novels written from the perspective of children. (Priscilla Gilman)

The best films of 2022 according to RTÉ:

Emily

Actor Frances O'Connor's ambitious directorial debut takes creative liberties in portraying the mysterious literary figure behind Wuthering Heights. In doing so, she carefully reminds viewers not to judge a book by its cover. Anchored by Sex Education star Emma Mackey's superb performance as the woman in question, the richly fictionalised tale acquaints viewers with the suffocated identity of a young writer battling to take charge of her own story in small-town, 19th-century England. At over two hours, the film feels drawn out in parts, but it is impossible to shake this understated gem and the powerful sentiments expressed in every chapter. O'Connor said she wanted the movie to be "a love letter to women today". Mission accomplished. (Laura Delaney)

Financial Times lists the best jazz albums of the year:

Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ghost Song

Nonesuch

Technically astute vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant’s ghost-themed set delivers passion, intrigue and dazzling sonic control. Covers range from the Sturm und Drang of Brecht and Weill to a pitch-perfect reading of “Wuthering Heights”, and seven originals are laced with intelligence and wit. (Mike Hobart)

On Forbes, an article about a curious building in Seattle's Fifth Aventue quotes Emily Brontë:

To quote Emily Brontë in Wuthering Heights these two structures are “as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” And yet they harmoniously co-exist to make up Lotte Hotel Seattle. (Jeryl Brunner)

The Scottish Daily Express's TV critic also summarizes 2022:

The Doc commendably used his column this year as a platform to wish Oti Mabuse a safe landing as she defied gravity while her career plummets upwards; and he seized the opportunity to theorise that Amanda Holden's love of all things musical probably began with a belief that Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights under the pen name Kate Bush. (Gavin Docherty)

NRC (Netherlands) and the best of the literature in 2022:

Personage na personage, generatie na generatie, raakt bijvoorbeeld bevangen door Eliza May Drayden, in Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris. Daarmee vertelt Anjet Daanje een verhaal over de doorwerking van een idee, dat de grenzen van tijd en ruimte overstijgt – vele malen minder zweverig dan het misschien klinkt. ‘Wat heb je aan een lichaam als het je jammerlijk in de steek laat, als het je doodsangst aanjaagt’, denkt een van de personages. ‘Overbodig en zwak is het vlees.’ Het geestelijke is nu eenmaal een langer leven vergund dan het lichamelijke. Dat wordt weerspiegeld in de hommage, die de roman is, aan Emily Brontë, op wie Drayden geënt is. Emily en Eliza zijn beiden schrijfsters wier literaire erfenis, hun doorwerking, hun ‘na-leven’, vele malen langer duurt dan hun ‘fysieke’ leven. Als dát geen bewijs is van hun ‘onsterfelijkheid’. (Thomas DeVeen) (Translation)

Cumhuriyet (Turkey) remembers Paula Rego, who died a few months ago.  The Sydney Morning Herald has a Brontë question in its Superquiz.