Saturday 25 April 2026 (morning)
10.00 Talk by Irene Lofthouse: ‘Brontës, Boggarts & Brogues*: local voices and influences that helped shape the Brontës’
* (Boggarts are mythical creatures found across cultures, and Brogue is the Irish term for accent/dialect.)
The Brontë children were surrounded by storytellers from birth, hearing tales from different voices and areas. Their parents were from the North of Ireland and Cornwall, both places redolent with myths and legends. Genteel company in Thornton where the siblings were born would have contrasted with servants’ speech, which in turn would have been different to that in Haworth and Keighley. Dialect, myths and legends in each place were influenced by past migration and by new communities settling in the areas during the Brontës’ lives. In this talk, Irene looks at these influences, the accents and dialect the Brontës heard around them, and how these may have found their way into their written work.
Irene Lofthouse is a first-generation Yorkshirewoman of Irish heritage who’s been telling tales since childhood. She’s careered around many incarnations – caver, consultant, shoe-seller, storyteller, petrol-pumper, publisher amongst many others – but stories have been integral to them all. A cultural historian/researcher, writer and actor, Irene’s appeared on the stage, in a Ken Russell film, on TV, radio and at festivals performing her one-woman plays or giving talks. She’s particularly interested in making visible, invisible or forgotten lives and voices, in exploring new ways of seeing old stories and collaborating with literacy, historic agencies and universities to create accessible and fun learning resources. Co-founder of two community theatre groups, her poems and prose feature in many anthologies and she is a trustee of various associations including the J.B. Priestley Society. In Keighley, where she lives, Irene leads regular tours ‘In the footsteps of the Brontës’.
11.30 Presentation by Sharon Wright of the book Let Me In: the Brontës in Bricks and Mortar.
Sharon Wright, author of The Mother of the Brontës and editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, will present the book Let Me In: the Brontës in Bricks and Mortar (2025), co-authored by Sharon and by Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
Guided walk
Sunday 26 April 2026
Guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels in the Place Royale area. Fee: €10 per person, payable in advance. Free for members of the Brussels Brontë Group. To register, email
brusselsbrontegroup@gmail.com.
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