Did they give up?

The campaign to save the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton reaches national level. In The Guardian: 

The premises that takes up 72-74 Market Street has had various uses, from an apartment block to a cafe, but a campaign has been launched to turn it into an attraction that would complement Haworth’s enduring appeal.

It is estimated it will cost about £600,000 to buy the property, which is in a state of disrepair and neglect, and sympathetically renovate the Grade II* listed building into a tourist attraction comprising a cultural and educational centre, a cafe and holiday accommodation.

But for Christa Ackroyd – a Bradford-born journalist whose face is a familiar one in Yorkshire after fronting local TV news programmes between 1990 and 2013 – it’s not something that just will happen, she believes, but that has to.

Ackroyd grew up in Bradford as an adopted child and feels the negative press the city receives has affected young people’s aspirations and self-belief. “Bradford is a much-maligned place,” she said. “There was a survey this year that said it was the worst place to live in the country.”

Yet when her father suggested she look to the Brontë sisters for inspiration, he was right to do so, she says.

“Here were three girls from Bradford – they were without money, their mother had died so they grew up in a single-parent family, and they were told in no uncertain terms that their dreams of writing weren’t for the likes of them. Did they give up? No. Did they go on to achieve their ambitions? Yes.”

It’s that inspirational aspect of the sisters – they went on to write seven of the most celebrated novels in the English language between them, including Jane Eyre by Charlotte, Wuthering Heights by Emily and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne – that Ackroyd wants to drive home with the campaign. “Imagine a young girl from Bradford coming into this house and standing by the same fireplace that the Brontës grew up in front of, and walking in the footsteps of that greatness,” she said. “What better way to tell her that yes, she can follow her dreams and make them real.”

She would like the sisters’ birthplace to become an inspiring place for everyone. “The Brontês wrote about race,” she said. “Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights was almost certainly black. They also wrote about class, gender and the treatment of women. All these are issues that people today are talking about. The story of the Brontës is as fascinating as the novels they wrote, and it can be an important tool to empower young people today.” The plan is to get the house renovated and open by 2025, when Bradford assumes the title of UK City of Culture. An online crowdfunder has been launched, and last week the project was given an undisclosed amount from the City of Culture capital fund.

The cost of purchasing the property is £300,000, with the same again expected to be spent on transforming it. Ackroyd said: “We have had amazing support from Bradford people so far but we are now looking for businesses, organisations and foundations from across the country to support us.”

One of the driving forces behind the scheme to bring the Brontë birthplace back into use is Steve Stanworth, who 20 years ago discovered and cleared the largely forgotten ruins of the old Bell Chapel in Thornton, where Patrick Brontë preached and the sisters were baptised.

“Bringing the sisters’ birthplace back into use like this will be the final piece of the Brontë puzzle,” he says.

Incidentally, Keighley News reports about the Cultural Capital Fund:

The Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, East Street Arts-Keighley Creative and Silsden Town Hall are among 21 recipients of grants across the Bradford district from the £3 million Cultural Capital Fund. (...)

Beneficiaries also include Brontë Birthplace Ltd, at Thornton, which aims to bring the terrace house where Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne were born into community ownership and promote it on the literary trail. (Alistair Shand)

The Irish Times interviews the writer Mary Morrissy about her latest novel Penelope Unbound:

Martin Doyle: Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?

M.M.: Often. To Flannery O’Connor’s homeplace in Milledgeville, Georgia, to Maeve Brennan’s last home in New York and to the Brontë parsonage in Haworth, among others. (...)

M.D.: Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?

M.M.: Since I’ve gone to their places – Flannery O’Connor, Charlotte Brontë and Maeve Brennan. Oh and Alice Munro.

M.D.: Who is your favourite fictional character?

M.M.: Jane Eyre.

The Times of Malta announces the upcoming Malta Book Festival: 

As C.A. Castle, Castelletti is launching their debut novel, The Manor House Governess, at the festival.  Strikingly different, bold and thought-provoking, it’s a lyrical period-drama romance set in Cambridge (England) in the here and now. Inspired by and resplendent with echoes of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, as a queer protagonist embraces gender fluidity with honesty, trepidation and courage, a tragic fire blazes through a stately home and dark secrets smoulder beneath the surface. (Esther Lafferty)

Multiverso Noticias (Brazil) talks about literature and vampires before Dracula:

De fato, a influência de “O Vampiro” ecoou em obras de escritores famosos. Edgar Allan Poe e Emily Brontë, por exemplo, apresentam traços da narrativa vampírica em suas respectivas obras, anos antes do lançamento de “Drácula”. (Júlia Koerich) (Translation)

Il Manifesto (Italy) reviews Peter Brooks's Seduced by Story:

Brooks, a tale proposito, si sofferma su un romanzo di Charlotte Brontë – Villette – in cui Lucy Snowe, narratrice e protagonista della vicenda, continua a produrre un resoconto quanto mai opaco degli avvenimenti. Per tutta la storia, la voce di Lucy rimanda le spiegazioni in un incessante «gioco a nascondino» e finisce per raggirare con le sue omissioni anche il lettore più reattivo, proprio quando gli promette un racconto aderente ai fatti. La confessione di Lucy, pur animata da ferme intenzioni di veridicità, si propone come un capolavoro di elusione: persino la domanda cruciale del romanzo – «Ma lei chi è veramente, Miss Snowe?» – rimane sepolta dal dubbio.

Non ci si stupisce allora se Brooks, a partire dalle emblematiche dissimulazioni di Villette, si impegna a richiamare l’attenzione sulle tattiche e sul potere dell’«autorialità». Chi racconta può arrivare a manipolare la nostra percezione degli eventi per trascinarci nel vortice di un tranello mistificatorio. (Ivan Tassi) (Translation)

Patrouillers des Médias (Canada) publishes a quiz with some Jane Eyre questions.