'Be more Brontë'

The Telegraph and Argus features the new book The Birthplace of Dreams by Mark Davis and Steven Stanworth.

Now the Brontës’ Thornton legacy is explored in a new book, launched today, highlighting their lives in the village and the impact it had on the family.

The Birthplace of Dreams is written by Bradford photographer and historian Mark Davis and Steven Stanworth, who has spent more than 25 years looking after Thornton’s old Bell Chapel and is a founder member and former vice chair of the group that purchased and restored the Market Street property.

Illustrated with vibrant photographs, by Mark Davis, of the house and surroundings, and paintings of the Brontës by John Ellis, this fascinating book delves into aspects of the family’s story that we don’t normally hear about.

Says Mark Davis: “There has already been so much written about the family. There are so many interpretations, of their work and personalities. But there seemed to be something missing. It’s surprising how many people hold the common misconception that Haworth, with its quaint cobbles and pretty views, is the one stop Brontë location and that Haworth Parsonage holds their literary lives, from cradle to grave.

“The Birthplace of Dreams was borne out of us wanting to break that myth. Our little book, we believe, is unique in that the focus rests on the very place where the literary giants known today across the globe, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, first breathed in Yorkshire air in the front parlour of the humble little house on Market Street. Although the family only spent five years in Thornton, they were incredibly important years. Patrick in later life would refer to his years there as being his ‘happiest time’.”

From Patrick’s birth in Emdale, County Down, the first of 10 children in a poor rural family, to his death aged 84, surviving all six of his children, the book traces his journey to Cambridge, where he was a prize-winning student, and beyond, to curate positions around the country. From Essex and Shropshire he came to Yorkshire, arriving in Dewsbury aged 32 to be curate of All Saints Church, now the Minster. He moved on to Hartshead in the Spen Valley, where Luddites were attacking wagons delivering machinery to mills, then to Thornton.

Along the way the book takes us to places such as Woodhouse Grove, the Apperley Bridge school where Patrick visited his friend, the headmaster, whose housekeeper was Maria Branwell - the young woman who became Patrick’s wife - St Oswald’s Church in Guiseley, where the couple got married, and their home in Hightown near Hartshead.

The book pays tribute to significant figures in the family’s lives, not least Nancy De Garrs, who was 13 when the Brontës employed her as the children’s nanny in Thornton and had outlived them all by the time of her death, age 82, in Bradford Workhouse. And Tabitha Aykroyd, the family’s housekeeper at Haworth and the inspiration for Nelly Dean in Wuthering Heights and Martha, a servant in Charlotte’s novel Shirley.

The book highlights life in Thornton when Patrick was perpetual curate at the Bell Chapel, and residents who became friends, including Elizabeth Firth of Kipping House who was godmother to Patrick and Maria’s daughters Elizabeth and Anne.

“The social life the family enjoyed at Thornton was in stark contrast to life at Hartshead Moor, dominated by the Luddite movement,” says Mark. “The family met Elizabeth Firth and her father within days of arriving and a warm friendship blossomed. Elizabeth invited the family to dinner regularly at Kipping House. Such was the relationship between the families that Patrick, looking for a new wife and stepmother for his six motherless children, asked Elizabeth for her hand in marriage, of which she refused.”

Elizabeth’s diary provides a glimpse of the relationship between the families. “The entries were no more than bullet points but show a mutual support structure in place throughout the Brontës’ time in Thornton. When Elizabeth died it was the money she left Anne that financed her last tragic trip to Scarborough.”

Adds Mark: “It’s interesting to see how the family’s life in Thornton overlapped to Haworth. Through the book, we take in Haworth, the sisters’ education, achievements and deaths. We return to Thornton to explore the birthplace history and evolution to the present.

“The Birthplace of Dreams is so much more than just another Brontë book. We bring 72-74 Market Street out of the shadows. The house, where three seemingly ordinary girls were born; three girls who dared to dream and would take on a male dominated 19th century literary world and whose names continue to inspire people to dream.” (Emma Clayton)

The authors of the book, Mark Davis and Steven Stanworth, have penned an article for The Yorkshire Post.

Even though the very last member of the Brontë family died in 1861, when Patrick passed away in early June of that year, the good reverend having witnessed his wife and all of his children being laid to rest in the family vault below the flagstones in St Michael and All Angels’ Church before him, the Brontë legacy lives and breathes on.

The story is by no way finished, pray, it’s still in its infancy, given the literary genius of the Brontë sisters and the worldwide interest by young and old alike in both them and their ill-fated yet well-meaning brother Branwell.

There has already been so much written about the family since their deaths and that will continue, long after we are all but dust.

There are so many interpretations, both of their work and personalities. But yet, there always seemed to be something missing.

It is surprising just how many people hold the common misconception that the picturesque, rugged moorland village of Haworth with its quaint cobbles and pretty views, as the one-stop Brontë location and believe that Haworth Parsonage holds their literary lives completely, from the cradle to the grave.

Our new title, the Birthplace of Dreams, was borne out of us wanting to break that myth, our little book, filled to capacity, we believe is unique, in that the focus rests on the very place that saw the literary giants known today across the globe, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, first breathed in Yorkshire air as their divine literary spark entered the world, in front of the fireplace in the front parlour of the humble little house that is the former parsonage on Market Street, Thornton.

Although the Brontë family only spent five years in Thornton, they were incredibly important years. Patrick in later life would refer to his years there as being “his happiest time”.

Given the tragedy that followed just a year after the family left the village in 1820, it is a statement, no one could ever dispute.

The genteel social life the family enjoyed at Thornton was in stark contrast to the previous harsher life at Hartshead Moor, which was dominated then by the revolutionary Luddite movement.

The family met the young Elizabeth Firth, and her father within days of arriving in Thornton, after which a warm friendship blossomed.

Elizabeth was to become godmother to Elizabeth and Anne and invite the Brontë family to dinner regularly at Kipping House, her comfortable family residence she shared with her father, close by on Lower Kipping Lane.

Such was the relationship between the Brontë and Firth family, that Patrick, looking for a new wife and stepmother for his six motherless children after the tragic premature death of his wife Maria, felt comfortable enough to ask Elizabeth for her hand in marriage, of which she refused.

In 1815, the year in which the families first met, Elizabeth, who 17 years Patrick’s junior, was mourning the death of her mother the previous year and like her father a committed churchgoer.

We know much more about the inter-family relationship between the Brontës and Firths, than we would normally expect because Elizabeth kept a basic diary.

The entries were in essence no more than bullet points; however, they show a consistent mutual support structure in place throughout the time the Brontës were in Thornton.

When Elizabeth, died in 1837, it was the money she had left Anne, that financed her last tragic trip to Scarborough.

It is interesting to see how the family’s lives in Thornton, overlapped to nearby Haworth, certainly for the first few years in any event.

Through the pages of the book, we of course take in Haworth, the sister’s education, achievements and sadly their premature, in today’s terms, deaths.

Towards the end we return to Thornton to explore the birthplace history and evolution up to the present day in 2025.

The Birthplace of Dreams is so much more than just another Brontë book, through its written content, of which is enhanced by the inclusion of striking colour images, we bring the mostly unknown 72-74 Market Street, out of the shadows in literary form.

The very house, where three seemingly ordinary girls were born, three girls who dared to dream, who dared to reach for excellence beyond their wildest dreams and surpassed them all.

Three girls who would take on a male-dominated 19th century literary world and whose names two hundred years after they were born would continue to inspire people to dream beyond all their expectations.

Haworth may justifiably lay claim to the Brontë sister’s literary success, having penned some of the most groundbreaking novels in the history of English literature there, however there is no changing the fact that their first spark of life, quite rightly belongs to Thornton.

In the inspirational composed and written words of Queen Camilla, “Be More Brontë.”

The Washington Post's list of '50 notable works of nonfiction from 2025' includes

‘The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life’ by Graham Watson

Who was the author of “Jane Eyre”? Charlotte Brontë kept much to herself, and after her death at age 38, her story was muddied by a biography written by her friend Elizabeth Gaskell. Literary historian Watson examines Brontë’s letters to create a clear-eyed portrait of the beloved 19th-century novelist.

The Boar has an article about Wuthering Heights.

It’s safe to say that upon opening my copy of Wuthering Heights, I had high expectations. It is impossible not to have expectations of one of the most famous romance novels of all time.

Even before reading the novel, I knew that the name ‘Heathcliff’ is commonly circulated as a representative of the brooding romantic interest. However, I found him to be a less likeable character than I expected. Throughout the novel, my feelings surrounding Heathcliff oscillated between pity, bafflement, and dislike. His character is as complex and disturbed as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. And there are similarities between the two – they are both haunted by loved ones and both suffer from dysfunctional family situations.

Heathcliff comes to be viewed by the narrator, Ellen Dean, as a black tide that threatens to sweep away the building blocks that Wuthering Heights is built on. He’s always on the fringes of the Earnshaw family, symbolised by his lack of adoption of the name ‘Earnshaw’. He grew up with Catherine, but he is never quite her sibling. Similarly, he loved Catherine but was never quite her husband. Heathcliff’s story is filled with tantalising almosts that serve to torture the readers as well as himself.

The entire novel feels real and yet not; incestuous undertones combined with the isolated characters create a disturbed dreamscape where nothing is ever quite right. Wuthering Heights is an isolated bubble that no other part of the world can touch. Indeed, their world is so separate that Cathy Linton at one stage asks Ellen Dean what lies beyond the hills, having no knowledge of the world beyond, like Rapunzel in her tower. They operate as a society within themselves, but both as a group and individually, they never find a way to operate in a way that makes complete sense. For example, Heathcliff’s normal order of life and death is flipped completely – whilst alive, he continuously suffers as though in hell, and it is only when his mortal life ends that he can reach self-actualisation by haunting the moors immortally with Catherine by his side.

What makes the reader more uneasy is that they are completely reliant on a first-person perspective, which is usually more unreliable than the third person, since they are much closer to the story. I was initially surprised that it was not from the perspective of any of the most central characters, but primarily Ellen Dean, a servant who is a close confidante of many family members. She is always on the fringes of every story she encounters, be it Heathcliff and Catherine or Linton and Cathy; this makes her the most well-equipped character to relate the history of Wuthering Heights to Lockwood, since she has the unique ability to hear and acknowledge multiple perspectives. Reasonable and kind, yet firm when it was necessary, I thought she made a good narrator. Her being indirectly involved in the action likely means that she can be relied upon to be as unbiased as possible. However, this also means that there are likely large pieces of the story that she missed out on. She saw a lot, heard a lot, and was confided in a lot, but it intentionally leaves the reader to wonder what she didn’t see. Because of this, the true intricacies of relationships, especially Catherine and Heathcliff’s, remain a mystery. For example, it leaves the reader wondering when the moment Catherine and Heathcliff fell in love was.

Their love for each other is all-encompassing; it ruins both of their lives in what to an outsider seems to be a melodramatic way. What was particularly baffling to me was that Catherine practically willed her premature death into existence after her husband asked her to choose between him and Heathcliff. Her love for Heathcliff was so strong that it was destructive – she literally died of a broken heart. After her death, Heathcliff’s world turns into a hellscape in which he becomes the devil. If he can’t have love, he wants revenge. Heathcliff seeks to punish everyone around him for the actions of people they are associated with. And during this time, he is haunted – literally by Catherine, and figuratively by her descendants. For the rest of his life, Heathcliff is doomed to suffer from an existence in which Catherine is never quite there. Perhaps this is one reason why he turns into a tyrant. This seems to be the lesson that Wuthering Heights teaches: those who suffer from a privation of love will become a source of evil. (Ella Davey)

The Guardian ranks Charli xcx’s 20 best songs and her new, Wuthering Hieghts-related one makes it to #12.

12. House (2025)

However you might have expected Charli xcx to follow up Brat, it’s unlikely that you expected this, from the forthcoming soundtrack to Wuthering Heights: a warped electronic homage to the Velvet Underground, filled with drones, shards of noise and a guest appearance from John Cale, which bursts into furious distortion-laden industrial noise at its climax. (Alexis Petridis) 

The Week has former deputy PM and president of global affairs at Meta Nick Clegg pick his five favourite books and one of them is

Wide Sargasso Sea

Jean Rhys, 1966

A prequel to “Jane Eyre”, which takes us to Jamaica, through the life and marriage of the soon-to-be Mrs Rochester, the madwoman of the attic. An agonisingly poignant novel, made all the more so by the fact that Jean Rhys wrote it while living in poverty and obscurity; the recognition it earned her came far too late.

FarOut Magazine shares Joan Didion's list of favourite books, which includes Wuthering Heights.