Plans for Bradford 2025

BBC highlights its plans for Bradford 2025.

The BBC has also commissioned bespoke content to mark Bradford 2025.

BBC Four literary classics series The Read will focus on Emily Brontë, who was born in Bradford and grew up in nearby Haworth. A special episode will see Bradford actress Vinette Robinson, who has starred in Sherlock and Black Mirror, read Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights. (Charles Heslett)

Spoiler recommends '7 fantasy period books with romance like My Lady Jane' and of course one of them is by the same writers:

My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows

You may think you know the story. Penniless orphan Jane Eyre begins a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets one dark, brooding Mr. Rochester—and, Reader, she marries him. Or does she?

Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Brontë, and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights. (Ariadna Pinheiro)

The Telegraph features people who live in famous houses and one of them is the former home of Kate Bush:

Wuthering Heights

Bola Ranson lives in Wuthering Heights, a six-bedroom Victorian property in Eltham, south-east London, that was home to Kate Bush between 1985 and 2003 – and named after her 1978 debut single. The property investor bought it for £1.9 million in 2019 and calls it home, with his wife and three children. A large wrought-iron “Wuthering Heights” sign installed by the owner in between Bush and Ranson is still up on the front gate.

“The property was quite old and needed a significant refurb. The top floor was Kate Bush’s dance studio, with mirrors everywhere, which we turned into my son’s bedroom. It did cross my mind to keep it as a piece of pop history, and it was a little bit painful watching the decorators start to strip the stuff off the walls. But the architects couldn’t think of a way to keep that while still having a space that people would want to use.

Kate hasn’t lived here for 20 years, but we still get her fan mail – probably a dozen letters a year. Some are just addressed to “Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights”, but it has a way of finding us. We pass them on to her brother, who lives close by.

We still get people posing outside the gates and taking pictures. They usually don’t know that we’re watching them on the doorbell camera and if we do turn up, they’re usually quite embarrassed. I’ve also had people walk into the compound as if it’s a museum.

Two years ago, I couldn’t figure out why there were suddenly kids of 15 and 16 posing as well. Then I found out that Running Up That Hill was at number one after featuring in season four of Netflix series Stranger Things. I sat down with my daughter and watched the whole series. I actually thought it was brilliant.

The song Wuthering Heights and the book that inspired it are set on the Yorkshire moors. I’ve never been, so am not entirely sure what they’re like, but there is green all around us.

This property backs on to a golf club, there are a lot of trees around here and you’ve even got a bird sanctuary around the corner. You can walk into the garden and hear the birds whistling.

When I was at school, her songs were the soundtrack of the Eighties. But before, she was just another artist that you’d see on Top of the Pops. Since moving here, there’s a lot more meaning to it. I definitely have a softer spot for her now.”

The Senior (Australia) is looking forward to Wuthering Heights Day in Perth on July 28th.