Fri 25 Sept, 6:00pmOld School RoomCelebrate the opening of the Brontë Women’s Writing Festival 2026 with us! The festival will begin with a special reading from poet Emma Conally-Barklem, before we welcome to the stage screenwriter and director Sally Wainwright.2026 marks 10 years since the release of Sally Wainwright’s Brontë biopic, To Walk Invisible. The BBC film marked Sally's first venture into historical drama, beginning in 1845 with the sisters' journey to publication, to Branwell Brontë's death in 1848. Her screenplay is infused with quotes taken directly from letters or diary entries by the Brontës, which gave authenticity to the dialogue.Since then, she has seen success with dramas such as Gentleman Jack, Riot Women, Renegade Nell and the concluding chapter of Happy Valley. This evening we will look back at her career highlights and, of course, delve into the making of ‘To Walk Invisible’
Sat 26 Sept, 10:30amOld School RoomDo you have a taste for eerie moorland mansions and dark, mysterious secrets?If so, then this delightfully gothic panel with authors Essie Fox, Heba Al-Wasity and Stephanie Bramwell Lawes will help you discover more about creating the perfect gothic novel...“Now, eighteen years later, Catherine rises from her grave to tell her story – and seek redemption.” Essie Fox is a Sunday Times bestselling author. Her latest novel, Catherine: A retelling of Wuthering Heights, reimagines Emily Brontë's fictional world and tells the famous story from Catherine Earnshaw's point of view. Essie was born and raised in Herefordshire. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London and began a career in magazine and book publishing – before becoming self-employed in commercial art design. Always an avid reader, she now writes historical novels. She also hosts a podcast called Talking the Gothic.“All paths lead to Weavingshaw, a cursed estate on the moors.” Heba Al-Wasity’s debut novel Weavingshaw is a Sunday Times bestseller. This gothic fantasy novel envelops its reader into an atmospheric world, with ghostly encounters and a dark mystery to unfold. Heba Al-Wasity was inspired to write by her own experiences of being born an Iraqi refugee in Libya, growing up in Canada, and attending medical school in the UK. Working as a junior doctor in emergency care and several psychiatric inpatient units, Heba gained first-hand insight into how poverty and deprivation can lead to social inequalities. She is based in Greater Manchester.“There – suddenly – was Thornby Manor. I would never forget the first time I saw it…a talisman of Darkness. An emblem of death.” Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes' debut novel Thornby Manor was inspired by her love of the Brontës and Daphne Du Maurier literary works. Stephanie lures the reader into the great house that “looms above a mist-shrouded lake, its corridors heavy with secrets.” Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes grew up in the historic city of Bath and studied History and Ancient History at Exeter University. A lifelong love of literature led to a career in publishing in 2009, and her passion for books has only continued to grow ever since. Her favourite novels include Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and anything by Tracy Chevalier. She currently lives in Warwickshire.
Sat 26 Sept, 12:30pmOld School RoomJoin us as we welcome author Dr Sharon Blackie to the festival stage for a discussion about her work and her latest book Ripening.Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author, speaker and teacher. As a psychologist and mythologist, the transformative power of story has been at the heart of her work for decades, and she is a recognised pioneer in reclaiming women’s stories. As well as writing seven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling If Women Rose Rooted and Hagitude, her work has frequently appeared on the BBC and in international media outlets. Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, and has taught and lectured at many academic institutions and cultural festivals around the world. Her much-loved publication The Art of Enchantment is a global Substack Bestseller.
Sat 26 Sept, 2:30pmOld School RoomWe will be travelling back in time with authors Liz Flanagan and Anna Caig, as they shed light on how they recreated worlds from the past in their latest novels...Liz Flanagan is an award-winning author from Hebden Bridge. When We Were Divided is her first historical novel for adults. Although her previous books are for children, all her novels combine vivid landscapes and emotional depth with fast-paced, gripping stories. She teaches Creative Writing in many different settings, has worked as a book editor and as Centre Director for Arvon, at Ted Hughes’s former home, Lumb Bank.Anna Caig is obsessed with the hidden voices of women and a compelling underdog story. Luckily, history offers plenty of these. She’s inspired by the glimpses into a woman’s life we get before the historical record moves onto something considered much more important. What was happening in these gaps? Anna grew up one of three sisters in the wilds of West Yorkshire, scribbling novels into notebooks - and Wuthering Heights is her favourite book. She now lives in the ‘howling wilderness’ of the Peak District. Her debut novel, The Wise Witch of Orkney, was inspired by her love of the northern isles of Scotland, folklore, and passion for depicting women in their midlife and beyond, continuing to live rich, adventurous lives.
Sat 26 Sept, 4:00pmOld School RoomFollowing the success of the Wandering Imaginations project in 2025, we're continuing our literary partnership with Bradford Culture Company and Writers Project of Ghana. Literary Sisters: Accra to Bradford features writers Barsa Ray and Tabitha Bast from Bradford, and Emma Ofosua and Priscilla Adipa from Accra, as they share new work developed as part of this international writers exchange.The project is supported by the British Council and features a companion event at Pa Gya! Festival in Accra, Ghana, in October.
Sat 26 Sept, 5:30pmOld School RoomWe're closing a wonderful day of events with an evening of poetry by Emma Conally-Barklem. Emma’s latest collection, The High Flight: 50 Poems Inspired by Emily Brontë's Hawk, was released earlier this year and had its book launch at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. This collection takes its creative inspiration from one of the few details known about Emily Brontë. It is believed she rescued then kept a Merlin hawk who she called Nero. Conally-Barklem explores what it means to be captive and to be wild, the condition of the falconer, its lore and mystery through the enigmatic Brontë sister who stands both inside and outside of time.Emma is an author, poet and yoga teacher based in Yorkshire. She is the author of four collections. Her first collection The Ridings was curated into an exhibition in her hometown, Bradford. Hymns from the Sisters was written after a residency at the Brontë Parsonage Museum. She was a core poet for the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Poetry Festival Bradford 2025 and was a guest of Radio 4’s Front Row, where she talked about the Brontës.
Sun 27 Sept, 10:30amOld School RoomWe are delighted to welcome screenwriter and playwright Miriam Battye to the Brontë Women's Writing Festival! Miriam is currently working on a new adaptation of Jane Eyre with Working Title, starring Aimee Lou Wood (Sex Education, The White Lotus). She was the first writer-in-residence at Sister Pictures and is the recipient of the 2020 Harold Pinter Commission.Miriam Battye's plays include Strategic Love Play, Scenes with Girls, and The Virgins (starring Ella Bruccoleri), which was released in early 2026. Her plays have been published by Faber. Miriam's screenwriting credits include Dead Ringers, Woman in the Wall and Succession, which earned her a WGA award. Her feature film debut, Extra Geography, is out this year.
Sun 27 Sept, 12:30pmOld School RoomIn Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, Mr Rochester marries the daughter of a West India planter and merchant in Spanish Town, Jamaica, for a large sum of £30,000...To coincide with our 2026 exhibition The Colonial Brontës, we're hosting an insightful conversation with historian Miranda Kaufmann. Her latest book, Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery (2025), follows the lives of nine heiresses, tracing their tainted money from its origins in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean. Kaufmann reveals a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation.Dr. Miranda Kaufmann is the author of the Wolfson History Prize and Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize-shortlisted book Black Tudors: The Untold Story (2017). She read History at Christ Church, Oxford and is now an Honorary Fellow of the University of Liverpool, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, where she co-convened the What's Happening in Black British History? workshop series from 2014 to 2022. Miranda also served as Lead Historian for the Colonial Countryside project with National Trust houses from 2019 to 2021; and has taken her work into schools with her Teaching Black Tudors project and to the world with her Black Tudors: The Untold Story course with FutureLearn.
Sun 27 Sept, 2:00pmOld School RoomFind out how authors Wendy Pratt and Nic Wilson have approached memoir writing, and how nature and landscape helped them navigate challenging times through their lives.Wendy Pratt is an author, poet and editor. She writes about nature as refuge, and how belonging to landscape gives you a place to connect to your ancestors, even if those ancestors are only joined to you through the land you walk on. The Ghost Lake was published by The Borough Press in 2024. Her latest collection of poetry, Blackbird Singing at Dusk was released in 2024, previous collection, When I Think of My Body as a Horse, won the Poetry Business International Book and Pamphlet Competition 2020.Nic is a writer, editor, Guardian country diarist and author of the nature memoir Land Beneath the Waves, one of BBC Wildlife Magazine's Best Nature Books of 2025. She works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, specialising in wildlife, wild plants and environmental issues. Nic has nearly 30 years’ writing experience spanning academia, education, journalism and narrative non-fiction.
Sun 27 Sept, 3:30pmBrontë Event Space in the Old School RoomThe Brontës were renowned for their powerful portrayal of moorland, which for centuries had been dismissed as bleak, empty places. Yet, with their blanket bogs, folklore, and habitats, they are some of our most fascinating and vital landscapes.In this friendly 120-minute writing workshop led by authors Clare Shaw (Bloodaxe) and Anna Chilvers (Bluemoose), we’ll read classic and contemporary literature about moors and the unique plants and creatures who live on them - and we’ll write our own stories and poetry in response. Finally, we’ll acknowledge some of the threats facing moors - and together we’ll explore how we can protect them. From experts to first-time writers, everyone is welcome!Anna Chilvers (Bluemoose) and Clare Shaw (Bloodaxe) are popular writers and facilitators who have authored and edited 14 books between them - including novels, poetry and creative non-fiction. In 2025, they co-edited The Book of Bogs (Little Toller) featuring over 40 leading writers of ecology, nature and place. Anna and Clare facilitate Bogwise: a series of bog-themed writing workshops, residentials and reading events. They are also the co-authors of b(l)og, the popular bog-themed substack!
Mon 28 Sept, 7:00pmOnline via zoomThis September, the British Library is releasing a very special edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.The Wuthering Heights presentation box contains facsimile volumes of the first edition of the novel and Emily’s personal copy of Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, together with copies of pages from her two manuscript poetry notebooks. Each element has been created directly from the originals held in the British Library’s collections, ensuring exceptional fidelity to the source material. The covers are carefully modelled on bindings from the period, evoking the look and feel of these mid-nineteenth-century literary treasures.We will be joined by Alison Moss from the publishing team, and curators Maddy Smith and Catherine Angerson at the British Library to discuss the process and development of their upcoming publication.
Tue 29 Sept, 7:30pmOnline via zoom'Something is happening at Westerley. Things where they shouldn't be. The shadow of a maid sweeping in the dawn light. But is the house really haunted?'Tune in for a special Festival online event with author Lauren Mooney. Lauren’s debut novel Service was inspired by her six years working as a personal assistant. The novel follows Danielle. She's broke, hates her job as PA to the blithely privileged Jeannie, and now a break-up has left her with nowhere to live. It comes as a surprise when Jeannie suggests that Danielle stay at Westerley, the sprawling Yorkshire estate where she grew up. They need someone to look after the place anyway.Lauren Mooney is a writer from the East Midlands. She works in theatre and audio drama, and has co-run Kandinsky Theatre Company since 2015, making award-winning shows across the UK and Europe. She is a graduate of UEA's Creative Writing Prose MA, where she held the David Higham Scholarship. She lives in East Sussex with her husband Stewart and their tortoise, Sacher Tort.
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