Essentially $80 million fanfiction

BBC News has an article on the Brontë school room and how it's going to keep hosting events despite having received one complaint.

It is now managed by the charity Brontë Spirit, which hosts community events, drinks festivals, craft fairs and wedding parties, and, in 2013, hosted a concert by rock singer Patti Smith.

Council members voted to grant the licence on the condition a noise limiter be installed to prevent overly loud music from being played inside.

Kathryn Thornton told members she had been organising events in the building for 14 years and there had only been one issue during that time.

She said: "We never get complaints from neighbours. It is a great community asset for the village."

She told the panel they had decided to apply for a full licence as it would reduce the reliance on Temporary Event Notices, which venues are only allowed a limited number of each year.

However, the council's environmental health department said it was likely to get complaints that would "not easily be resolved".

A spokesperson said: "I have received a complaint in July 2025 about the school rooms from a nearby resident, alleging loud music, raised voices and litter being thrown over the wall into gardens.

"The complainant said they could not sit out in their garden or open their windows when temporary events were being held, especially weddings or events involving music."

Thornton questioned the complaint, pointing out there are three pubs a short distance from the schoolroom.

Charlotte Kaygill, environmental health officer for Bradford Council, said the premises was not suitable for the licence, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She said the protected nature of the building raised problems – the large, single glazed windows cannot be replaced with double glazing.

Thornton acknowledged some bands had been "loud" in the past, but said having a dedicated licence holder on site would prevent this from happening in the future.

She said the hall was more likely to host craft fairs than noisy parties, adding: "The School Room is a hive of activity, and we want to keep it vibrant. The last thing we want to do is upset anyone." (Chris Young)

Irish Country Magazine has several 'Irish bookworms share their favourite books of all time'.

Professor Aoife McLysaght, Irish geneticist and a professor in the Molecular Evolution Laboratory of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin

This is a VERY hard question, and the answer seems to change over time. I remember reading Black Beauty and Alice in Wonderland as a child and loving those so much that I asked my grandparents to get me more of the same. They had beautiful hardback covers with gold embossed decoration, and I decided that I needed more books that looked like that, presuming I would enjoy them just as much. They found books with matching covers but they were the significantly more advanced books Jane Eyre and Little Women – these were quite a bit of a step up for me at the time, but then Jane Eyre became my favourite book. (Adele Miner)

For The Michigan Daily, '‘Wuthering Heights’ isn’t an adaptation; it’s an affront'.

If we look at “Wuthering Heights” solely within the context of what it sets out to achieve, Emerald Fennell’s latest project is a great success. As described by Fennell, the adaptation of Emily Brontë’s beloved novel is supposed to be a mix of what the 40-year-old director remembers from when she first read it at age 14 and what she wished had happened in Brontë’s version of the story. The resulting film may be far from a faithful recreation, but at least she’s the first person to admit that she “can’t say (she’s) making ‘Wuthering Heights.’” Hence the title’s stylized quotes.

To give credit where credit is due, what results is, admittedly, a story best left in quotations — and not always to bad effect. The costume and set design, while historically inaccurate, establish a bold and evocative aesthetic that immediately sets the film apart from its moodier source material. The love story, while certainly racier than Brontë’s version, maintains the bones of Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff’s (Jacob Elordi) original tale of dark obsession and petty revenge. And, if we can forget for a moment that they are meant to be portraying teenagers, Robbie and Elordi’s performances are points of praise. It is, by all accounts, a perfectly decent film, so long as it is viewed only as exactly what Fennell promised: a pretty dream, colored not by realism but fantasy. [...]

“Wuthering Heights” may have accomplished all it set out to do, but we cannot forget that art is not meant to be consumed in a vacuum, and the politics behind decisions like these are felt by audiences even if they aren’t addressed by creators. Film adaptations have a certain responsibility to engage with the source material as they translate it to a new medium and, in doing so, introduce it to a new audience. In the wake of a film like this, it becomes impossible to ignore how much is truly at stake in that act of translation, particularly when the role of translator is not taken as seriously as it should be. Fennell was perhaps right when she said “Wuthering Heights” is a difficult novel to adapt, though I don’t know that I agree with her assertion that to do so would be impossible. Instead, I am left with the impression that to do so might simply have been impossible for her.

So, if you’re expecting an accurate adaptation of Brontë’s novel going into this film, expect to be disappointed. Instead of a harrowing family study that explores the nuances of generational trauma, obsession and revenge, “Wuthering Heights,” in Fennell’s hands, becomes a campy, sex-driven love story in the vein of Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” (a far superior film). Yet, while Fennell might be a master of cheap aesthetics — something that may be enough to make some people forgive the movie’s many shortcomings — I personally struggle to think highly of a film that is essentially just $80 million fanfiction. I’d rather just reread the book. (Camille Nagy)

La voz de Asturias (Spain) discusses whether viewers limit the creativity of adaptations. AnneBrontë.org features a letter Charlotte Brontë wrote to Branwell from Brussels.