A special place for the few 'in the know' and the people of Thornton

Quite the year for the Brontë Birthplace. The Telegraph and Argus looks back on it:

In May 2025, the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton reopened following a £650,000 restoration, transforming the historic building into a visitor, literary and education centre.

As of June 2026 Queen Camilla stands as the centre's Royal Patron.

Anna Gibson, general manager of the Brontë Birthplace, said: "Until recently, the Brontë legacy and those crucial first years of life were unknown to most of the world.

"Preserving any tangible part of the incredible history of the Brontë sisters is of deep emotional, cultural and historical significance."

She also highlighted the importance of the site in understanding the early lives of the Brontë sisters and the history of Thornton.

Ms Gibson said: "The project has shone a light not only on the sisters' early years but also the wider and fascinating history of Thornton as a village."

Despite its significance, Thornton is often overshadowed by Haworth, the Brontës’ later home.

Ms Gibson said: "In almost all of the Brontë biographies, Thornton is reduced to a stop on the map to Haworth.

"The house is called rundown and unglamorous and the landscape bleak and wild.

"However, to the few 'in the know' and to the people of Thornton, the Birthplace has always held a special significance and has been a fixture of Market Street."

The birthplace has now become a hub for cultural activities, including a monthly speaker programme that attracts guests from across the UK and beyond.

Ms Gibson said: "The talks have proved popular, giving voice to both local and international speakers on a huge range of topics."

The site has also seen increased visitor numbers thanks to renewed interest in the Brontës, fuelled in part by major screen adaptations. 

Emerald Fennel's Wuthering Heights premiered in February of this year, remarking on the event, Ms Gibson said: "We experienced a huge uptick of visitors.

"It was our busiest ever month for overnight stays and one week we had all rooms occupied nearly every night."

She said: "It was brilliant in that it brought in a whole new generation of Brontë fans and sparked such interesting and engaged conversations over a book published nearly 200 years ago."

Ms Gibson said: "The entire West Yorkshire area has seen a massive uptick in interest, international press coverage and visitors in the last year." (Amelia Short)

Publishers' Weekly features Jasper Fforde's forthcoming novel, Dark Reading Matter, the final installment of the Thursday Next series.

Fforde used the narrative dare technique to write his 2001 debut novel, The Eyre Affair, a mind-bending adventure set in an alternate version of England, about Thursday Next, a crime-solving literary detective who must rescue Jane Eyre from a villain who has kidnapped her from the pages of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel. The book launched Fforde’s bestselling Thursday Next series, which will come to an end this fall after 25 years.

“This is the last hurrah,” Fforde says. “The Thursday Next series is a celebration of reading, writing, and novels. I think novels are the greatest art form known to humankind.” (Elaine Szewczyk)

National Post asks Canadian librarian Allison Hall-Murphy about the books that changed her life and one of them is

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)

Often cited as an inspiration for Gothic Romance, this book is so much more. Yes, Jane Eyre does contain certain gothic elements (an old gloomy estate full of secrets, a broody handsome love interest, also full of secrets) but the strength of the novel is in singular, unforgettable character of Jane herself. Jane’s narration of her own growth from poor, unloved orphan to independent woman feels surprisingly modern. As a child she lashes out in anger at her mistreatment, as a youth she is determined to stand on her own two feet and as an adult she refuses to accept anything but full and equal love. Jane’s passion, integrity and insistence on being treated with dignity make her a very relatable and recognizable character almost two hundred years after Jane Eyre’s first publication in 1847.

Vogue has selected 'The Best Albums of 2026—So Far' and one of them is

Charli xcx, Wuthering Heights

Love or hate Emerald Fennell’s 2026 rendition of Wuthering Heights, one thing is certain—Charli xcx totally gets Emily Brontë’s famed gothic novel. Dare I say, it’s the best interpretation since Kate Bush’s 1978 song of the same name. Somehow, she managed to blend the alt-cyber-pop sound we’ve come to love the Brit icon for with the book’s range of then-scandalous themes. I have never—and will never—consider the gothic novel a romance (not sorry!), so much as a cautionary tale of obsession, enmeshment, and abusive cycles. Charli nails just that with viral songs like “House” (which I’d say is a spot-on song retelling of Isabella’s bait-and-switch entrapment into a marriage with Heathcliff) to upbeat bangers like “Dying for You” (remember when, in the book, Heathcliff dug up Cathy’s grave to look at her? Yikes!). Another standout, “Seeing Things,” captures the element of the spectral and ghost stories that was a key theme of the book and mostly left out of the movie. (Conçetta Ciarlo)

La Vanguardia (Spain) has an article on literary tourism. Apparently people are discovering it is a thing now.

Más de uno decidió el pasado mes de febrero que este verano lo pasaría en los aislados y sombríos páramos de Yorkshire, en el norte de Inglaterra. No por refugiarse en un lugar de temperaturas menos sofocantes, sino por haber quedado anonadados tras ver a Margot Robbie y Jacob Elordi actuar en esos escenarios en la última adaptación audiovisual de Cumbres borrascosas , dirigida por Emerald Fennell. El filme desató la Brontëmanía y provocó, por un lado, que las ventas de la novela se dispararan un 504% en tan solo dos días, según datos aportados por Amazon; y, por otro, que hoteles y apartamentos turísticos de la zona notaran un notable incremento de ocupación.

Mia Ferullo, responsable de la participación digital del Brontë Parsonage Museum, que se encuentra en Haworth (Inglaterra) y que conserva la antigua casa familiar así como la mayor colección mundial de manuscritos de las hermanas Emily, Charlotte y Anne, admite a La Vanguardia que existe “un auge renovado” por la vida y obra de este trío literario. Pone, además, sobre la mesa un término: las readaways , o, lo que es lo mismo, las escapadas vacacionales a las que uno llega tras leer un libro y donde muchas veces la actividad principal, además de desconectar, es leer. Una tendencia que va a más, según apunta un informe publicado a principios de verano por la plataforma de búsqueda de vuelos Skyscanner , donde se revela que el 49 % de las personas que ha reservado un viaje a lo largo de este año han considerado en algún momento hacerlo a raíz de un libro. El estudio desvela también que las reservas de hotel que utilizan el filtro “biblioteca” en su web han aumentado un 70% a nivel mundial. (Lara Gómez Ruiz) (Translation)

AnneBrontë.org shares a new video exploring how the Brontës kept cool during heatwaves.