'With your help we have done it. The Brontë Birthplace is saved for the nation'

The Telegraph and Argus considers the £240,000 grant for the Brontë Birthplace an early Christmas present.

On Friday, the Department of Levelling Up, Homes and Communities announced the campaign to buy and refurbish the unassuming Thornton home where the sisters were born would get a £240,000 boost.

The money comes from the Community Ownership Fund – a pot of cash designed to rescue important community buildings.

The money will essentially secure the project – which has already raised over £300,000 through crowdfunding and other grants.

Reacting to the news, Christa Ackroyd, one of the people who have campaigned to make the Brontë Birthplace a top tourist attraction, posted on Facebook: "What wonderful news to wake up to.

"Our dream is now a reality, another grant means with your help we have done it. The Bronte Birthplace is saved for the nation."

"Our vision is to see schoolchildren from Bradford and beyond stood by the fireplace beside which the three sisters and Branwell Brontë were born and believe that they too can achieve - just as three Bradford girls did 200 years ago by refusing to give up on their dreams."

Although the Brontë family is more closely associated with Haworth - the village where they spent much of their lives - they were born in a terraced house on Market Street, Thornton.

Plans for the building, which has most recently been used as a cafe, include turning bedroom space into holiday lets, and creating accommodation for activity workshops and outreach projects. The building will also retain the existing cafe use.

A planning application for the work was approved by Bradford Council earlier this year.

A statement from the Government announcing the funding for the Brontë Birthplace said the works will help create "a full Bradford 2025 cultural experience".

It added: "It will add a new dimension to the story of the Brontë family in the Bradford district, enhancing connections between the birthplace and the Brontë Bell Chapel both in Thornton, and the Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the Brontë sisters established their writing careers.

"The funding will help refurbish the building so it can offer four short-term letting rooms for visitors to Bradford and Brontë country, and to artists, writers and heritage professionals.

"It will also help establish a cafe for use by local people and visitors, and help create a community events space where schools sessions, community workshops, performances and celebrations can take place.

"The organisation will work with entrepreneurs at the local college, university and community groups to develop tourist packages, comprising walking tours in Brontë country, a full Bradford 2025 cultural experience making the Birthplace a tourist hub for the village." (Chris Young)

Cultured Vultures recommends '10 Underrated Movies of 2023 You Should Watch' including

2. Emily

Director: Frances O’Connor

Frances O’Connor’s movie Emily is a fictional creation of the possible romantic reality writer Emily Brontë might have experienced, which would have given her the passionate material she needed to write a book like Wuthering Heights. Emma Mackey is brilliant as Emily. She’s fiery, irreverent, and manages to convey Emily’s sense of isolation so well. She allows us to feel closer to Emily, and see her rich, inner life up close.

Mackey and Oliver Jackson-Cohen are so magnetic together, and portray so well their characters’ feelings of push and pull. O’Connor does so well setting up the tension of the romantic spaces between the pair, where even the untying of a corset can be the most beautiful, luminous thing.

A must-watch for fans of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. (Natasha Alvar)

Irish Examiner interviews historian and host of 'Censored' podcast Aoife Bhreatnach .

Three desert island books

Number one has to be Jane Eyre, I’m in a long-term relationship with that novel so that has to come with me wherever I go. (Marjorie Brennan)

Wuthering Heights is one of the 'Top 10 Books About Unrequited Love' according to Times Now News.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë's classic masterpiece explores the tumultuous relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. The novel delves into Heathcliff's unyielding and destructive love for Catherine, showcasing the consuming nature of unrequited passion, revenge, and the profound impact it leaves on their lives and those around them. Through haunting prose, Brontë captures the depths of longing and despair born from unfulfilled love.

Also on Times Now News: 'Top 10 Must-Read Books That Explore the Theme of Revenge' which includes Wuthering Heights as well.

Wuthering Heights

This classic tale of revenge from Emily Brontë is based on the passion and love between Catherine and Heathcliff. Catherine's unwillingness to marry Heathcliff because of low social status forces him to flee Wuthering Heights. However, he returns to get his revenge. After a series of tragic deaths including that of Catherine's, Heathcliff inherits the Wuthering Heights and pours out wrath on its occupants.

The Sunday Times (South Africa) includes the following question in its 'literary quiz of the year'.

23. Name the title of Kate Bush’s record-breaking debut single inspired by Emily Brontë’s 1847 Gothic novel.

And there's also a Brontë-related question in The Week's 'Christmas quiz of the year 2023'.

Which of the Brontës wrote a) "Jane Eyre" b) "Villette" c) "Wuthering Heights" d) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"?