Ministers have announced a £47m funding boost for projects aimed at protecting some of peatlands, which are vital for absorbing and storing planet-heating carbon from the atmosphere.The money, announced by the Environment Department (Defra) today, will be divided between three pots, each supporting projects related to either building wetting infrastructure, growing wetland crops and bulrush, or receiving peatland restoration training.Farmers, land managers, drainage boards, water companies and environmental organisations can apply for grants from these different schemes depending on which action suits them best.Peatlands store more than half of the carbon found in England’s land-based ecosystems.This makes them a powerful nature-based solution against climate change, which is mostly driven by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.However, 80 per cent of England’s peatlands have been degraded after centuries of drainage to make way for farming caused the soils to dry out and the organic matter they contain to decompose, releasing stored carbon into the atmosphere. [...]Defra’s announcement comes amid plans to build a huge wind farm on Walshaw Moor, in Calderdale, the wild landscape that inspired Wuthering Heights.Despite its legal protections, Saudi-backed developers are pushing ahead with plans to build 34 wind turbines – at 200m more than 40m higher than the Blackpool Tower – and a battery energy storage system.MPs from Labour and the Conservatives have objected to the project, highlighting the fact that the scheme would cover more than 2,300 hectares of protected peatland. (Ralph Blackburn)
It’s safe to say that we’ve been well and truly spoiled for choice this year when it comes to period dramas. Whether it’s Wuthering Heights, The Other Bennet Sister, The Forsytes or Little House On The Prairie, if you’re a fan of the genre, there are plenty of titles vying for a much-coveted spot on your watchlist. (Abby Allen)
This is no Wuthering Heights wild interpretation, but the film, directed by Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), looks like it has more than a whiff of award season prestige – while also offering up a few surprises. (Tori Brazier)
Charli XCX, Wuthering HeightsCharli’s Wuthering Heights soundtrack sonically mirrors the film’s penchant for bodice-ripping bombast and grief while standing on its own. It’s often loud and discordant, filled with droning synths and screeching strings that underlie Charli’s digitally manipulated vocals. And yet, somehow the album manages to be as startling and satisfying as a clandestine carriage-house hook-up. Many of its highlights spring from the production styles crashing up against or bleeding into one another. The strings, arranged by Gareth Murphy, prove a welcome addition to Charli’s usual soundscape, bringing a wry grandeur to her hyper-pop instincts that anachronizes and cinematizes her music a la early Lana del Rey. In less than 90 seconds, the interlude “Open Up” nearly wordlessly evokes the fatalistic heartache forever embedded in the rock walls of Wuthering Heights—the kind of tragedy that feels both timeless and as pressing as ever. (Savio)
It started when she was working on the song “House,” for the Wuthering Heights soundtrack, and remembered Cale saying, in a documentary, that he wanted to make his strings sound “both elegant and brutal.” Given that she’d had a similar goal for “House,” she suddenly had an idea. “I thought, Do you think I could reach out to John Cale?” she says to host Bella Freud. “I started asking the question out loud, not sure what the answer would have been.” She found a way to get into contact with him, and they set up a call.Unfortunately, on the day of the chat, she forgot it was happening. “The day that we were supposed to speak, I was having a really bad day,” Charli recalled. “I was my very unregulated self.” In the midst of crying with her husband, George Daniel, she got a call. “I picked up the phone, and there was this voice on the end that was gravelly and deep and Welsh,” she said. “I was like, ‘Who is this?’” It was John Cale. “I was like, Oh my God, John Cale is calling me mid-breakdown,” Charli remembered. “I told him, ‘I’m having a bad day, John, but speaking to you on the phone is making me feel so much better.’” Clearly, it worked out. (Jason P. Frank)
Even the classics are getting explicit. Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (2026) wraps both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in yearning, with BDSM scenes featuring one woman getting whipped in a horse bridle, another chained to the fireplace, crawling on all fours as a willing pet. None of this was in Emily Brontë’s book. Neither was the pink bedroom that we’re told it’s the exact colour of Cathy’s naked skin. (Kritika Kapoor)
English author Emily Brontë is best known for her novel “Wuthering Heights,” a multigenerational story of obsession, revenge and love set in the Yorkshire moors. “This Dark Night,” the first full-length biography of Brontë in over 20 years and written by Penn State Professor of English Deborah Lutz, draws on Brontë’s formerly inaccessible notebooks and manuscripts to bring new light to the author’s tragic and fiercely independent life.Lutz, the George and Barbara Kelly Professor in Nineteenth-Century English and American Literature, discussed in the following Q&A her new biography of Brontë and why readers still obsess over her novel nearly 200 years later.Q: Who was Emily Brontë?Lutz: Brontë grew up in a family of writers, and she collaborated with her siblings on all of her work. Both “Wuthering Heights” and her sister Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre” grew out of this shared writing space. While she composed her great, gothic novel, with its gloomy passions, she did chores around the house — sewing her own clothing, making bread and cleaning the parlor. In “This Dark Night,” I evoke her as an embodied self; I ask, what was it like to be in a woman’s body in 1830s and 1840s West Yorkshire? What were the sounds, smells, the feelings along the skin?Q: Why continue to study her almost 200 years after her death?Lutz: New lovers of her novel “Wuthering Heights” appear every day, it seems! And so much new research over the past 30 years changes the way we see her. She knew queer people, like Anne Lister — called Gentleman Jack and recently was the subject of her own HBO series — a local lesbian. And the character Heathcliff was likely based on a person of color, possibly the child of an enslaved person passing through Liverpool — a major stop for ships involved in the slave trade. When he first arrives in the novel, after being found on the streets of Liverpool, he is speaking a foreign language and is described as “black,” a “gypsy” and with the appearance of an Indian sailor. Brontë also witnessed the beginnings of the climate crisis. Textile mills and mining in her area polluted the air and streams, and some of the birds she so loved were going extinct.Q: What new insights did you discover in your research? Any surprises?Lutz: I was surprised at how much she revised “Wuthering Heights,” since it’s easy to imagine it coming from her fully formed. But it went through distinct versions, and she really labored over it.But also how quickly she wrote it! She finished it in about two years. And then, after her death, Charlotte revised it again, when it was reprinted. Charlotte had always been ashamed of the novel, finding it coarse, violent and immature. She made it more conventional by stringing together short paragraphs and smoothing out the local speech. This seemed like a real betrayal of her sister, given that Emily had her own eccentric voice and Charlotte tried to tame it.Q: The new “Wuthering Heights” movie starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi recently hit streaming. Any thoughts about the film or why we keep returning to it two centuries later?Lutz: The new film is a visual feast and the costumes and interiors are amazing. It seemed a shame, though, that only about 5% of the dialogue comes from the novel. The novel is mainly oral — it's a tale full of people talking to one another — so it’s a missed opportunity to ignore most of Brontë’s text. It was also a shame to have Heathcliff played by a white actor. It’s fairly unusual for a great Victorian novel to have a major character who is a person of color, and I think today filmmakers should run with that. (Francisco Tutella)
Speaking to Sandgren first, he detailed the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and Sandgren details the creative process behind the film’s visual language, the use of weather as an emotional tool, and the technical decision to shoot on VistaVision and 35mm film.When asked about Fennell’s approach to the film, Sandgren stated, “We were about to design a film from scratch from her sort of mind… everything—and you will talk maybe with Suzie about it—but how she built sets just from a fantasy version of how she basically saw it.”With the movie notably shot on film, that choice also had a key reason. Sandgren explained it, “Emerald really felt that the grain was needed for the emotional story… in my opinion, 16 millimeter is the most poetic emotional of all of those usually because… there’s some nostalgia or something that is helping you feel the texture of the skin.”Of course, with this film, Sandgren had to work with VistaVision cameras. For that format, as he stated, “What’s good with VistaVision for us was that we could have the same film stock and the same format and then just have a VistaVision camera. To me, like everything you—every decision you make should have a reason… usually in emotional stories I think it always helps with film so far… to create that sort of—that you’re actually watching an impression of reality and not reality.”Sandgren had plenty more to say about the production, including how the film’s visual style was built around “heightened realism,” using a stage-bound environment to create a “magical” and “surreal” atmosphere. Key emotional beats were emphasized through weather motifs. Production designer Susie Davies further expanded this. For Davies, the key was the process of building the film’s “heightened, surreal” world on a soundstage, her meticulous approach to designing the contrasting environments of the Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and the close-knit collaboration between herself, the cinematographer, and the set decorator.Again, commenting on that “heightened realism,” Davies noted, “We were aiming for that sliver between reality and unreality. And when you’re on a soundstage, we aimed to make it feel real. We didn’t want anyone really to know, but ultimately… You end up with this weird sliver between reality and unreality.”Davies also recognized that this was something Fennell had wanted to do since her younger days. With that in mind, “This whole world building, you know, this teenage lens that we were going to show this story through, bringing to life her imagination was extraordinary.”As a great way to set things up for production designer Charlotte Dirickx, Davies talks about this continued collaboration. As she states, “She’s a real perfectionist, whereas I might cut corners for speed. She knows when to hold fast or, you know, her wealth of knowledge is like nothing else… yeah, she’s extraordinary and so talented with her eye.”For Dirckix, the experience did have its challenges. As she states, “The production involved highly unusual props and set details, spanning from real fish accented with lipstick set in resin jellies to massive fake strawberries crafted from cake. For the outdoor sets, the team referenced the stagey atmosphere of Florence Yoch’s gardens from Gone with the Wind and Fragonard’s painting The Swing, adding 12-foot weaves of dried gypsophila to construct a dreamlike background.This also spoke to the anachronistic take that was key to Fennell’s vision. “…We would take like a period shape, say for the furniture, but then upholster it in a kind of different or more modern fabric. So you’ve always got that slight jarring going on.”It’s this wide variety of choices that allows for the movie to stand out as much as it did in theaters. I was quite the fan and would have been happy spending so much more time with each of these three to dive even further into what the process of making so many exciting choices to realize this fully realized version of the world, originating with Emily Brontë and reimagined here by Fennell, was like. Given that all of these craftspeople worked on Saltburn as well, I’ll certainly be curious to see what they all tackle next. (Aaron Neuwirth)
I finally caught the latest film adaptation of Wuthering Heights last week and even though I knew it had been divisive I was still disappointed in a way I hadn’t imagined. I was prepared for the film to be tacky and over the top and too much, and that didn’t faze me at all. I welcomed it. The source material demands it, in fact. But I cannot forgive the fact that in the 2026 version of Wuthering Heights there is absolutely no haunting.What is Wuthering Heights without ghosts? It becomes a mildly sordid tale of the romance between two very beautiful people that ends when one of them dies, and it also makes Kate Bush’s song of the same name make no sense at all. A non-Gothic Wuthering Heights is a particularly odd choice because I’d assumed the auteur Emerald Fennell would have jumped at the chance to explore Heathcliff’s despair for dead Cathy throughout his troubled life and use his pain as an opportunity to get really weird. I still can’t believe Saltburn is still the only Emerald Fennell film with a very dirty graveside wanking scene.Ending Wuthering Heights at Cathy’s death is like ending The Great Gatsby after the big party, or ending The Secret History at the bacchanal. There is so much more that happens afterward—and it’s the uglier, messier parts that make great fiction great. As it stands the latest movie version is simply too pretty, with all of its rougher edges flattened out. I suppose I should have expected this, given that the role of Catherine is played by Barbie herself (Margot Robbie), after all.Fennell’s film is just one example of a phenomenon adjacent to whitewashing in film that I’ll call hot-washing. There’s nothing new about Hollywood adaptations featuring profoundly good-looking people, but film stars used to be made to look a bit more… regular, particularly before plastic surgery made the faces of so many A-list actresses look eerily similar.Hot-washing is when source material that’s complicated has its edges smoothed out by the casting of conventionally hot people who are made to look conventionally hot in a way that clashes with the source material, and it’s ruining a bunch of recent literary adaptations whose characters are meant to seem a little more real. Imagine if Bridget Jones’s Diary were remade in 2026 with Sydney Sweeney as the title character. (Maris Kreizman)
A contributor to Los Angeles Times writes about her 'bucket-list trip to Yorkshire'.This film is everything the book is not. It doesn’t adapt the novel so much as it uses it almost loosely as a starting point, and then turns the entire material upside down. Emily Brontë never imagined that her Cathy would be played by a Barbie-era actress, with a Charli XCX score blaring in the background, accompanied by an Australian Heathcliff and a boudoir-esque Isabella. In fact, there is reason to speculate that she would not be fond of any of these twists of events. Naturally, fans of her work aren’t either.The biggest disconnect comes from how the film markets itself: “the greatest love story ever told”. Yet, that’s never what the original story was. “Wuthering Heights” is not a romance in the traditional sense. It’s a cautionary tale about obsessive love, cycles of abuse, domination, vengeance, and the way toxicity echoes across generations. It’s about how that kind of love doesn’t just destroy the people involved, but everyone around them as well. The only sense of peace comes when those patterns are finally partially broken.Catherine and Heathcliff are often mistaken for the ultimate romantic ideal, but their connection is rooted in possession, mutual destruction, and something almost brutally confusing. It’s about the faint possibility of redemption through the next generation. The novel focuses on class difference, racism and discrimination, and deteriorating mental health. It never romanticises the eventual psychosis.However, the movie barely explores these dynamics. Instead, it leans heavily into the intensity that comes with yearning. And yes, there is a lot of it, particularly crafted for the female gaze.I would actually argue that there is too much of it. The cast is perfectly capable of adapting their lines, but on screen, their chemistry is reduced to just playing dialogue. It pushes a narrative of forbidden love that is absent because of the plot lines that the movie doesn’t adapt.There is an interesting, unexpected positive note, though, which is the visuals. The direction is unapologetically bold. Emerald Fennell rejects the muted minimalism that a lot of modern films lean into and instead embraces a loud, saturated, and almost overwhelming aesthetic. The use of colour is striking: Cathy’s skin against her crimson outfits that represent her inner turmoil, the deliberate clashing tones, and the heightened tone of the palette that turns every frame into something picturesque.There isn’t a single scene or outfit that wasn’t carefully placed or thought out. The film uses vast, evocative backdrops to conjure a kind of sentimentality that feels aptly grand. A few instances that come to mind are the colder scenery changes during the lowest pivots, as well as Cathy’s room, which resembles the veins beneath our skin. The latter, in particular, perfectly articulates her eventual descent. Even the stylistic choices, like the almost anachronistic elements and the unexpected costume influences, add to the film’s identity, allowing it to go beyond the boundaries of traditional period drama.At times, it feels like the film is more interested in being seen than being understood and strangely, that’s where it succeeds the most. Even when the narrative falters, the imagery carries it. You could honestly watch this film purely for its cinematography and walk away satisfied.“Wuthering Heights”— intentionally titled with quotation marks—exists here as more of an idea than an adaptation. A reinterpretation, a reimagining that prioritises emotion, aesthetics, and atmosphere over fidelity. Emerald Fennel said her goal was to capture the experience of a teenage girl reading a romance book for the first time. She clarified several times that she has no intention of adapting the book but rather depicting her own interpretation of it. Watching the movie with that in mind might leave less shock and bitterness, and could even satisfy a cinephile who prefers the visuals. (Tinath Zaeba)
Brontë CountryIt is difficult to imagine a fictional tale more gothic, inspirational and remarkable than that of three brilliant sisters who lived in relative isolation on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, secretly battling their socially conscripted futures by writing poems and novels that they dared not publish under their own names.Two of those novels — ”Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë, are still considered masterworks, influencing subsequent generations and endlessly adapted for film and television. (In the ultimate Yorkshire crossover, Wainwright wrote the breathtaking two-part Brontë biopic “To Walk Invisible,” which everyone should see.)The Brontë Parsonage Museum, and the town of Haworth which it overlooks, is very much a tourist attraction. An information annex, gift shop and public restroom have been added behind it, but once you enter the small garden that stands between the parsonage’s front door and St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, you are in another world.In 1820, Patrick Brontë, recently appointed incumbent of St. Michael, moved his wife, Maria, and their six children into the parsonage where they all lived for the rest of their natural (albeit in most cases, short) lives. Maria died in 1821; the two older children, Maria and Elizabeth, died four years later after being sent to a typhoid-plagued school Charlotte would pillory as Lowood in “Jane Eyre.”The museum is meticulously restored to reflect the years that the surviving children — Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell, the only son — were young adults. The dining room table, where the sisters wrote, is strewn with manuscripts, quill pens and tea cups; a bonnet and shawl bedeck a chair in the small kitchen. Patrick had his own study but it is difficult to imagine three women being able to write separate works, never mind classics, in such close quarters. Ironically, only Branwell’s room, papered with sketches and poems, looks like an artist’s refuge.Unlike his three sisters, Branwell, his artistic career stunted by alcoholism and an opium addiction, never published. He died of tuberculosis in 1848 at 31.If any place should be haunted, it is the Brontë parsonage. Shortly after Branwell’s funeral (and just a year after “Wuthering Heights” was published), 30-year-old Emily also died of tuberculosis, expiring on the sofa that stands beside the dining room table. A few months later, after the publication of her second novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall,” Anne, 29, succumbed to the disease in nearby Scarborough, just south of Whitby.Charlotte, who wrote two more novels after “Jane Eyre,” was the only sister to be celebrated during her lifetime. She married and then died at the parsonage in 1855 at 38 of complications from her first pregnancy. Only Patrick lived to old age — 84 — dying in 1861 in the home where he had served for 41 years.But it is not a sad house; instead visitors are left to wonder at the genius, resolution and audacity that roiled the quiet rooms and halls where the sisters secretly wrote and sent out their manuscripts, all initially under the the names of Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell.The steeply descending main street of Haworth is filled with tea shops, pubs and stores clearly dedicated to pleasing Brontë pilgrims, but its basic form, including the original stationery store where the sisters once bought their paper, remains the same.As do the moors that stretch behind the parsonage. On a walk to the Brontë Waterfall (more like a small but still lovely rill) and Top Withens, the ruin of a 16th century farmhouse believed to have inspired “Wuthering Heights,” the wild silence and sweeping vistas are even more transporting than the parsonage. One imagines not the ghost of Cathy or Heathcliff, but a trio of women, very much alive and striding through the heather, their minds alight with the stories they would tell, set among similar terrain. (Mary McNamara)
4. Wuthering HeightsEmerald Fennell's fearless reinvention of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is not for Brontë purists, but it is an exhilarating take on the book and a striking example of Fennell's typical artistry and daring. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are fiery as Cathy and Heathcliff, the classic lovers made for each other but separated by class. Their connection is at once frankly sexual, romantic and caustic in the cruelty they often display toward each other. With that cruelty, Fennell restores the vehemence often overlooked in Brontë adaptations. Departing from prettified period pieces, the film's visual style is an enticing kaleidoscope of colour and fashion. Fennell drops in some comic moments, and at times dares to be over the top (Heathcliff on horseback, Elordi's bad wig flying in the wind) but its excesses are a small price to pay for such ambition. However much Fennell toys with the details – and why not? the book still exists – she captures the essential enduring passion of Wuthering Heights and its class-bound time. (Caryn James)
The classic novel comes to life on the big screen once again, this time from Promising Young Woman and Saltburn director Emerald Fennell, and with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. Fennell, an Academy Award winner for her work on Promising Young Woman, has both big fans and big detractors at this point—but her take her, while book purists haven't been thrilled, is a big, visually stunning epic romance. Robbie and Elordi are both up to the task as well, bringing a charged energy to roles that really need it. Alison Oliver, who recently shined on HBO's Task, is another major highlight in a supporting role. An original soundtrack from Charli XCX helps to set the anachronistic mood and feels like a real cherry on top. (Evan Romano)
Major improvements to a public footpath used by thousands of visitors every year have been completed in Haworth.The footpath, which links Weavers Hill car park with Main Street, had become uneven and hazardous but has now been tarmacked to provide a more accessible surface.Thousands of people visit Haworth every year from across the globe to walk in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters, who lived in the town in the early 19th Century.A Bradford Council spokesperson said: "This upgraded footpath strengthens an important link in the heart of Haworth, supporting a safer and more inclusive access for those who visit and enjoy this much-loved village."The path had become unsafe due to root damage from several trees, as well as debris and broken fencing that had started to encroach on to the path and the overhead trees, which were affected by Ash Dieback.Bradford Council removed the unsafe trees and collaborated with local allotment tenants and the tenant of the neighbouring paddock to clear the path's border creating a 5ft (1.5m) wide route.The work was paid for with money from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority's City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. (Grace Wood)
He was born in 1825 and for most of his life lived in a cottage at Buckley Green, near Stanbury.His loom was in the room upstairs, as it had more windows and he needed as much light as possible to see when weaving. It was also where he slept, and the bed end almost rested against the loom.He bought his own warp, carried it home over his shoulder and set it up on the loom by tying each warp thread on to those on the previous one. Once a new warp had been ‘gated’, he would then prepare the weft. This was bought in hanks, and he wound it onto pirns to go in his shuttles.One day a young man called Albert Kay, from Nelson in Lancashire, called at Timmy Feather’s cottage in Buckley Green. An account of his visit was subsequently reported in the Nelson Leader.Timmy was then in his 80s and as he was the last handloom weaver in the district, had become something of a celebrity. People often called and regularly asked to see his handloom and watch him weave. Albert was no exception and Timmy invited him upstairs to look at the loom. However, it was Sunday and being the Sabbath he said “I wod ’ave woven yer a bit of it had it bin a wark day but I ne’er weave at Sunday.”Returning downstairs Albert, no doubt disappointed, asked him if he remembered the Brontës. “Knew ’em all,” he replied. “I was baptised wi’ old Patrick. My mother used to tell me that when he splashed watter on my face I bawled like a cawf. Aye and I went to school in’t lane there beside churchyard and were taught wi’ Charlotte.”Asked what he thought about her, he said: “Well she was a little bit of a thing, about size o’ six penneth o’ copper. A teeny, little woman wi’ least hands that I’ve ever seen. And when it was said the parson’s Charlotte had written a printed book nobody believed it a first until fine folk in carriages came up cobbles in village street.“Aye and I knew Emily, but I never liked her. She were taller and darker than the others and she would pass yer in street and never look at yer, just as if you were a stone. I used to pass her on’t moor bottom when I was going to Haworth, but she never turned her head sideways. She always seemed to be thinking and muttering to hersel’.“Lass I liked best wer Anne, she allus had a smile and a word for a child or dog. But like ’em all she faded away. Did I know Branwell, ye ask? Aye, I’ve supped ale with him and John Brown in’t Black Bull, aye mony a time. He finished up wild, but everybody liked him. Last time I saw him in’t street his hair were flying and he looked demented. Poor Branwell – his was a wasted life.“Aye, I remember all to the last. I saw Charlotte that day when she came out to be wed in’t church, and she looked like a lily. I saw her carried out of t’old parsonage feet first not long after. And there weren’t many dry eyes in Haworth that day.“Last of all, I used to see old Patrick, lonely and desolate standing up in’t pulpit, while down below, lay his wife and five childer. It was a pathetic sight.”Old Timmy died at his cottage in 1910 and is buried in Haworth churchyard alongside the path that passes through it from the old school in Church Street. (Robin Longbottom)
The influence of British colonialism on the Brontës and their work is examined in a new exhibition.The Colonial Brontës focuses on the period of exploration, conquest and intercultural encounters of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.And it illustrates the extent to which the literary siblings were fascinated by colonial military campaigns and British missionary activity.The exhibition – at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth – opens on Wednesday, February 4, and continues until January 1, 2027.Professor Corinne Fowler, honorary professor of colonialism and heritage at the University of Leicester, is a co-curator of the event.She says: "The Brontë children were avid readers and their literary imaginations were fired up by what they learned about British colonial activity in Africa and India."This exhibition reveals that the young Brontës fictionalised real-life colonial battles, British explorers, missionaries and Asante warriors. It identifies their source material and traces the influence of empire writing into their mature works, particularly Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights."In 1826, Charlotte – then aged 10 – nine-year-old Branwell , Emily, eight, and Anne, six, invented their own colonies, collectively called the Glass Town Federation.They used the imaginary world as a setting for stories, poems and plays.Their 'kingdom' was inspired by the real-life Asante Empire in West Africa, an area regularly in the news of the day.Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, says: "This exhibition shows how these young Yorkshire children interpreted world news, incorporating it into their play and later their adult writings. That they were able to look critically at global events gave them a world view that was ahead of its time."And Rebecca Yorke, museum director, says: "We are delighted that Professor Fowler accepted our invitation to co-curate this exhibition with us. Academics and readers alike have long discussed the influence of colonial Britain on the Brontës’ lives and works, particularly in relation to the story of Heathcliff, and with a new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights about to be released it is a fitting time to explore the connections between what the Brontës read and wrote."Exhibits include manuscripts created by the Brontës as children, items relating to race and Heathcliff’s ethnicity, reading materials – with handwritten notes and doodles – and matchbox-sized miniature books. (Alistair Shand)
A stunning nature reserve, whose landscape famously inspired the Brontë sisters, is being touted as a must-see for nature enthusiasts and wildlife lovers.This pioneering nature reserve in West Yorkshire has been making waves after recently being named one of the wonders of the world to visit in 2026 by esteemed international travel magazine, Condé Nast Traveller.The picturesque reserve was established in May 2025 as part of King Charles' initiative of 25 National Nature Reserves (NNRs), designed to conserve wildlife and celebrate UK landscapes by providing enhanced protection to the unique topography within these designated areas.Covering 3,148 acres (1,274 hectares) - roughly double the size of Ilkley Moor - the reserve connects eight natural sites within the Bradford and South Pennines area, including the famous Penistone Country Park in Haworth, once home to the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne. (Parul Sharma)
I came to Brontë country fully signed up for the unfiltered Wuthering Heights experience: the tumult of windswept moors, storm-beaten farmhouses, haunting heroines, nature wild and untamed. I didn’t think it would turn its full fury against me.I’ve been halted on a riverside track that leads to the stone farmhouse where I’m staying, set on a hillside in the Yorkshire Dales. [...]I’m not sure how long it takes me to reach the house; all I remember is more barely passable breaches, clinging on to a mossy stone wall here, a rotten plank there, while the river gnashed at my legs. I couldn’t help but compare my state to Cathy’s after one of her outdoor misadventures — “as dismal as a drowned whelp” — but this wasn’t the immersive Wuthering Heights experience I had in mind.To the south, a stretch of the Pennines in Lancashire and West Yorkshire has been a magnet for Brontë tourists since the 19th century. The sisters’ eternally alluring novels, their rootedness in this landscape, and the mythology surrounding Emily, Charlotte and Anne’s genius — Emily being the most enigmatic of all — have birthed what can feel like an open-air literary theme park.Any connection to the family or their work, true or tenuous, will appear on a bus route, walking map or TikTok video. And each film adaptation attracts a new wave of Brontë pilgrims. The latest version of Wuthering Heights, directed by Emerald Fennell, lands on February 13 and Brontë country is bracing itself for the Insta-crowd, along with the notion of Cathy (Margot Robbie) in red latex and Charli XCX picking up Kate Bush’s hooded mantle on the soundtrack.I started my tour at the latest attraction to open to the public, the Brontë Birthplace, part museum, part magical guesthouse. Nothing tenuous about this link: the three authors and their brother Branwell were born in the house in the village of Thornton, a few miles west of Bradford. Emily was barely a toddler when the family left in 1820 for the famous parsonage at Haworth, but it’s an ideal scene-setter for my pilgrimage.Anna Gibson, the Brontë Birthplace general manager, tells me that when the eponymous non-profit society bought the terraced house in 2023, it had been “split into flats, shops, restaurants, all sorts” over the previous two centuries. For many years, a butcher’s shop had its sausage-making machine in front of the very hearth where the novelists are said to have been born.Restored and opened last year, there are three bedrooms. I’m the lone guest on this January midweek night, so choose the largest, where Emily slept alongside her siblings — there were six children under the age of six in the house (not a typo, and none were twins). At a window, a small mahogany mirror marks the spot where their father Patrick is said to have shaved, looking onto Market Street below.The fireplace, like most in the Birthplace, is original, but not the furnishings; most available Brontë furniture has been snapped up over the past century or so by the Brontë Society for the Haworth parsonage, now a museum. Instead, the dark wood pieces here are sourced locally, says Gibson, dated “1820 or a bit earlier, because they weren’t wealthy people and some of it would have been second-hand”. An exception to the faithful staging is my bed, a four-poster that’s closer to the luxury Charlotte might have afforded later in life, as the only sibling who survived long enough to enjoy her income.Left alone, I can’t resist creeping around the house in the middle of the night, imagining the torch on my phone to be a chamberstick candle. The room I’d love to revisit in the dark is the maids’ quarters in the attic above the kitchen, with its low ceiling, narrow stone staircase, rocking chair and creepy nursery furniture. When Gibson showed me the attic room earlier, she told me a visiting YouTuber had opened a cupboard, only to feel like she was poked in the eye by an invisible hand.But, alas, the room is only accessible in the daytime. I realise I’m being ridiculous: I only stepped off the train in Leeds a few hours ago and I’m already yearning to be haunted by my favourite Victorian novelist girl-crush.Day breaks, and I have been ignored by any tiny Brontë ghosts. The Birthplace has a new café but doesn’t yet offer breakfast. Instead I walk a couple of minutes to Plenty at the Square, a wholesome vegetarian spot linked to a community arts hub where, in view of the incoming storm, a fellow diner and a waitress insist on giving me cardboard boxes to wedge under my tyres in case I get stuck (I will).Past some of Thornton’s well-preserved narrow alleys, as well as 20th-century housing and a bypass, is a graveyard where the ruin of the Old Bell Chapel lies. This, along with an ivy-covered octagonal bell tower, is all that remains of the church where Patrick Brontë served as curate. It’s deliciously gloomy in the pale grey mist.I’m in the mood for the stuff of the novel. The moors are calling.It’s early January and daylight is limited, but there’s time for one of the shorter walks to Top Withins, a ruined farmhouse on the moors west of Haworth — a place long associated with the Earnshaw homestead that gives Emily’s only novel its title. From the village of Stanbury, it’s only a couple of kilometres, partly on a path that today would be better suited to crampons than to my trusty Merrell’s. After passing some empty stone houses, I reach Top Withins and look out at a panorama of desolation, frozen and starkly beautiful.The craggy ruin is marked by a plaque that bears the tone of a purse-lipped postwar Brontë Society volunteer: yes, its “situation may have been in her mind” when Emily wrote Wuthering Heights but no, the building “bore no resemblance to the house she described”. Today, it’s a perfect match for the account Lockwood, the visiting southerner, recounts of his first approach to the house: “On that bleak hill-top the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made me shiver through every limb”. There’s even a closet-sized room with two small holes for casement windows — impossible not to imagine Cathy’s “ice-cold hand”.Over the afternoon I spot just a few walkers — all, unlike me, prepared with trekking poles — and hear only a “sleet-laden wind” and the call of grouse. On the way back, pheasants’ footprints have joined mine in the snow. Suddenly a dark slab of concrete sky is descending and urges me onwards to the house that for the rest of my stay will be my real-life “perfect misanthropist’s heaven” (as a naive Lockwood idealises the neighbourhood he’ll share with Heathcliff).Like the location scouts for Fennell’s film, I’ve decided that to capture the isolation of Emily’s fictional farmhouse, today’s Brontë trail won’t do. I head north to Cowside, a late-17th-century stone farmhouse in the Langstrothdale valley, a little over an hour’s drive from Haworth. The surrounding land is still used for grazing, punctuated by field barns and drystone walls; Cowside still has its old piggery and henhouse.The Landmark Trust, which restores historic buildings and opens them to guests, has returned the house to its form circa 1800. Inside, there are flagstone floors, mullioned windows, moulded ceiling beams — but also underfloor heating, soft linens and wood burners in the inglenook and stone fireplaces. Most transportive is a quote from Corinthians, uncovered during the restoration, painted in gothic script on the walls of the parlour: “Whether ye eat, or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”Even without a flash flood, reaching Cowside isn’t the easiest for a city-dwelling bookworm. After the riverside track — SUV recommended — there’s a climb of about 300 metres with all your wood and food for your stay (a wheelbarrow is provided).But I am smitten, tending my fires, reading my books during wintry nights of true darkness and silence broken only by a nearby owl or creaking branches. This is the place to find yourself inside the spaces of Emily’s novel; to experience a “life of such complete exile from the world”, as the residents of Wuthering Heights do.If Brontë country is a literary theme park, Haworth’s Brontë Parsonage Museum is its Magic Kingdom. This is where Emily lived from 1820 until her death in 1848; it’s where all the Brontës wrote their novels.I tour the parsonage with Sam Harrison, its programme officer. The carefully preserved rooms are quiet, and other visitors — a tall couple dressed in formal black, a mother and daughter with an endearing shared enthusiasm — talk in hushed tones or not at all. The most important space is the dining room, housing the table where Emily, Anne, Branwell and Charlotte wrote, and around which they would promenade while sharing their work. The letter “E” is roughly engraved on its top, though no one can prove Emily is the culprit.The most evocative piece of furniture is also here: the couch where Emily died, aged 30, three months after Branwell and six months before Anne. Some fans burst into tears upon seeing it, Harrison tells me. Opposite, the windows look directly onto the graveyard, through which each Brontë (except Anne, buried in Scarborough) was carried to the family vault under the church; their mother Maria had been first, when Emily was three, followed by the eldest siblings Maria and Elizabeth, 11 and 10. It would have been an even starker sight then, with no trees to soften the view, nor curtains. Patrick refused to install them, having held too many funerals of children who had died in house fires. Little wonder that Emily has young Catherine say, “I feel and see only death!”In spite of the numerous biographies, we know little about Emily as a person, adding weight to the clues offered by each of her possessions. Almost all are the tools or product of creative discipline. She played the cabinet piano in Patrick’s study; there’s her portable rosewood writing desk with pens, nibs and blobs of sealing wax; her mahogany paintbox and geometry set; and minutely detailed sketches and paintings by all the siblings.Their father was a published author of poetry, fiction and political prose, and kept a good stock of books. It all belies the myth, started by Charlotte, that Emily, having “no worldly wisdom”, wrote “from the impulses of nature”. The residents of this house were serious about art and literature.And yet, all that mythmaking succeeded in bringing us here. Since it opened in 1928 people have visited from all over the world; at the entrance I count printed guides in a dozen languages. What would the Brontës make of all this? “They’d probably think we’re mad — ‘What are you doing putting our stockings on display?’ — but I like to think they’d be amused by it all,” says Harrison.After paying respects at the Brontë chapel and vault inside the church, it’s a few steps to the open country. The parsonage really is right on the edge of the moor. Death on one side, untamed wilderness on the other. For Branwell, there was a third way: the Black Bull Inn, where, along with the apothecary where he procured his laudanum, the struggling Brontë brother fed his addictions. In the pub’s lunchtime din I find the mason’s chair said to be his, under a stained-glass window. Legend has it that when his family came looking for him, he’d escape through the kitchen.A signposted route from the graveyard through Penistone Hill Country Park and across Haworth Moor leads to the Brontë Waterfall, which makes a sweet site together with the “Brontë chair” (a seat-shaped rock) and a rebuild of the diminutive Brontë Bridge (the original was swept away by a flash flood in 1989). On dry days, the falls can be underwhelming. On my second visit, after the snowmelt, it’s gushing. This circular route continues to Top Withins and Ponden Hall, a house associated with the fictional Thrushcross Grange (and now partly an Airbnb).It must be said that the Brontë associations claimed for some sites are about as authentic as the pun-riddled merch on Haworth’s Main Street, from mugs to haunted dolls to droll “Never Mind the Brontës” pastiches (mimicking the cover of the Sex Pistols’ single “God Save the Queen”).Yet fan fantasy is endemic to the Brontë business. Like Shakespeare, their universal themes are ripe for modern retelling, Emily’s scant biography bound to draw speculation, clashing claims, even tedious controversy. We might see Wuthering Heights’ adaptability tested to the limit next month. But everyone I meet, from Anna Gibson at the Brontë Birthplace to the cashier at the Parsonage Museum gift shop, shares a superfan’s excitement about the new film. (Maria Crawford)
In a recent Fandango interview, the filmmaker and her star, Margot Robbie, suggested their aim is for a visceral reaction to the film. Robbie recalled how Fennell spoke about the goal she hoped to achieve with the audience. “One of the first things Emerald said to me was, ‘I want people to cry so hard they vomit.’ I was like, ‘This sounds very appropriate, actually,’” she laughed.I don’t think I’ve ever had such a reaction to a movie. Hell, has anyone? If this did happen to you, I hope you sought medical attention.Fennell recently stated that she aimed for “Wuthering Heights” to “become this generation’s Titanic.” She’s described shooting the film as this self‑inflicted emotional challenge — “a kind of masochistic exercise.” This project, in her words, is the film she’s been waiting to make her entire life. Meanwhile, Robbie claims her co-star, Jacob Elordi, is so good in the film that she’s convinced he’s “this generation’s Daniel Day-Lewis.”On a side note, pre-sales for “Wuthering Heights” are currently strong, hinting at a $30M-$35M domestic opening weekend. This would easily be the biggest box office opener of Jacob Elordi’s career, and Margot Robbie first hit since “Barbie.”Furthermore, the film recently got stamped with an “R” rating: for “sexual content.” Test screenings had mentioned the notable amount of hyper-sexualized imagery — far more explicit than any previous adaptation of this material. The runtime listed on AMC’s website is 135 minutes.“Wuthering Heights” has a production/distribution budget reported at around $80M. That figure largely reflects the deal Warner Bros. struck to acquire and back the film after a competitive bidding war — including a higher reported offer of around $150M from Netflix that Fennell and her producers ultimately declined in favor of a theatrical rollout. (Jordan Ruimy)
When we meet in the run up to Christmas, the 28-year-old is making the most of her time off before embarking on a global press tour for Wuthering Heights, Emerald Fennell's sensationally anticipated interpretation of Emily Brontë's classic gothic novel about the destructive love affair between Catherine 'Cathy' Earnshaw (played by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi).Oliver plays Isabella Linton, the spoiled sister of Edgar Linton, whom Cathy marries. 'She’s a very repressed character who is desperate for love,' says Oliver, explaining Fennell's version of Isabella. 'Emerald’s interpretation of Isabella’s story is the reverse of Cathy's; there's an uncorseting of her. Like she becomes undone. There’s something so powerful about being underestimated.'The role was given to Oliver early on via a text from Fennell, who she had previously worked with on Saltburn, in which Oliver played the blonde, chain-smoking Venetia Catton. 'She said, if you want Isabella, she's yours.' Fennell had Oliver in mind from the beginning. 'She is the most remarkable actor,' says the director over Zoom. 'We saw so many people for Saltburn, and Alison came in and was just so unbelievably real. Even the way she breathes is different.' A similar crew worked on the two films, which were both written and directed by Fennell.'And yet a lot of people didn't recognise Alison,' Fennell laughs. 'She's so good that she disappears.'Much like Saltburn, Wuthering Heights has been setting the internet alight, with claims of oversexualisation, historical inaccuracies and whitewashing (Heathcliff is described as 'dark skinned' in the book), all before its release. Fennell brings in her own idiosyncratic reimagining with music by Charli XCX and provocative scenes – the film reportedly opens with a public hanging in which a man ejaculates mid-execution.'It’s how Emerald experienced the book when she read it as a teenager,' says Oliver. 'So it's not what's on the page, and I don't think that's what it's trying to be.' Does she think the film will make a Saltburn-style splash? 'You’ll never be bored by an Emerald Fennell film,' the actor replies, carefully. 'I think it will make noise, but you never know how things are going to be taken. I’ve learnt that it's not really my business to worry about that.' (Olivia Petter)
Elysia is part of the Visitor Experience team at the Parsonage, volunteers for the Publishing Post and recently completed a Master's degree in Nineteenth-century studies.
Emerald Fennel's latest flick – an adaptation of Wuthering Heights – isn't even out yet (it's scheduled for release on Valentine's Day next year), and it's already been sending shockwaves through the internet (for more reasons than one). First and foremost, its leading duo Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are unusually picks for the literary classic, and stills from the film set have caused outrage amongst the book's puritans. Of course, the steamy trailer soundtracked by a now-viral Charli XCX remix have also caused quite the stir too.But if you simply need to get your fix before February, we have curated a list of films we love that match that vibe: steamy, classic, perhaps some not-so-close-to-the-source adaptations that made us re-fall in love with a story. Find out pick of 7 films like Wuthering Heights below.1. Romeo + Juliet (1996)[...] It's exactly the kind of film we know would have been on Fennel's [sic] mood board for her adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Robbie even said to press: "I went to the cinema to watch Romeo + Juliet eight times, and I was on the ground crying when I wasn’t allowed to go back for a ninth. I want it to be that."2. Marie Antoinette (2006)[...] Very in the vein of a Wuthering Heights film soundtracked by Charli XCX.3. Atonement (2007)[...]4. Titanic (1999)This may seem random, but Margot Robbie told press: "In one of our first conversations about this film, I asked Emerald what her dream outcome was. She said, ‘I want this to be this generation’s Titanic." So, there you have it. It's another epic love story of ill-fated lovers – we can see the similarities here.5. Saltburn (2023)If you're looking for more of Fennel's madness, then definitely make a pitstop at Saltburn. The 2023 film altered brain chemistry in more ways than one – and sent Sophie Ellis Bextor's 2000s hit Murder on the Dancefloor soaring up the charts again (along with Mason and Princess Superstar's Perfect (Exceeder)). It's got all the Fennel-isms we're expecting to see more of in her take on Wuthering Heights: excessive nudity, steamy romance, dramatic deaths and pop song nostalgia.6. The Beguiled (2017)[...]7. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)[...] It's haunting and sensual – themes mirrored in Wuthering Heights – following the story of a rural summer picnic where a few students and a teacher from an Australian girls' school vanish without a trace. (Cassandra Dimitroff)
The Brontë BirthplaceNovember 14, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PMJoin Brontë Parsonage guide and lifelong Brontë enthusiast Paul Crossley for an intimate evening exploring the life of Branwell Brontë. In this thought-provoking talk, Paul turns the spotlight on Branwell Brontë—the often overlooked and misunderstood brother of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.Through personal reflections and historical insight, Paul will explore:• The intense pressures of expectation placed on Branwell as the only son• His creative ambitions and personal struggles• Why Branwell continues to evoke sympathy and fascination among Brontë enthusiasts
A 20th-century teenager who takes "Jane Eyre" as her bible for living is bound to have some adventures. Happily, for readers of Jane Hamilton's new novel, "The Phoebe Variations" (Zibby Publishing), Phoebe Hudson's travails are largely comical, frequently the laugh out loud variety. [...]Like "The Excellent Lombards" and like "Jane Eyre" itself, "The Phoebe Variations" could be classified as a coming-of-age tale. To be more down to earth, it's about a girl trying to figure out who she is, one misstep at a time. (Jim Higgins)
I’m meeting Sex Education and The White Lotus star Wood in a London hotel, having only ever interviewed her remotely thanks to her back-to-back filming schedule. And it quickly becomes apparent that to the effervescent actress, everything is comparable to a romantic comedy – it’s how she has always lived, seeing herself through the lens of heroines ranging from the aforementioned [Meg] Ryan, through to Cathy from Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. (Emma Cox)
Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights – Emily BrontëFor me, Heathcliff even beats bad-dads King Lear and Agamemnon. Most readers won’t remember that Heathcliff is a dad at all, which is part of what makes him so bad. The sadistic, dysfunctional passion between Heathcliff and Catherine dominates Brontë’s novel, leaving young Linton, the kid Heathcliff has with another woman, Isabella, neglected, abused and dominated by his terrifying father.Heathcliff doesn’t even meet his son until he’s 13, after Isabella dies. Linton is then forced to live in tormented isolation and tortured into marrying his first cousin, Cathy. All this so Heathcliff can take revenge on Cathy’s father Edgar, who married his beloved Catherine Earnshaw. (Sophie Gee)
Amongst all the drama in the Wuthering Heights trailer, we saw glimpses of jewellery that beautifully reflect its time.The story’s setting falls between the late Georgian and mid-Victorian period (spanning the 18th and 19th century), so pieces draw influence from both eras.In the mid-Victorian era, popular gemstones included amethyst, diamond, garnet, jet, onyx, opal, pearl, ruby, sapphire and turquoise. Popular cutting styles of the time included rose cut, old mine cut and cabochon, which is a rounded top and flat bottom.High-carat yellow gold (21, 22 and even 24) was common. This was often paired with silver to enhance the sparkle of the diamonds, which were then hand-cut into an old mine cut.An old mine cut is a pre-modern diamond cut characterised by its cushion-like, softly square shape with rounded corners, high crown, and large, often irregular facets, leading to a distinctive, softer sparkle.Pearls also make an appearance in the Wuthering Heights trailer, and these would almost certainly have been natural, as cultured pearls weren’t developed until much later in the 19th century.It’s also fascinating that jewellery in that time wasn’t just for women – men wore important pieces too. Garnets and amethysts were hugely popular, often set in bold brooches, chokers and rings inspired by classical Greek and Roman motifs or romantic floral designs. These jewels were worn for meaning as well as for appearance in this era.As for the value of the jewellery seen in the trailer, if you use 22ct prices of today, you would not be far from the price of jewellery in late Georgian to mid-Victoria era.
What were other movies or books that became influences for I Love You, Bunny?There were a couple of texts that became really important for the writing of the creation. I had COVID when I started writing the Bunny Boy’s voice. I was in a dreamy state. And my reason faculties were just gone. I was able to tap into this voice without too much second-guessing. The voice was drawn from a few different sources in my head. For the Bunnies, Jane Eyre is a holy text. And so the Bunny Boy says, “Dear Reader,” a lot, and has kind of a Romantic sensibility. That’s drawn from Jane Eyre’s narration of her own story (Keziah Weir)
Vintage Carriages TrustIngrow Railway StationKeighleyBD21 5AXA weekend of family-friendly activities in a Victorian-era railway stationTo celebrate Heritage Open Days, Railway 200 and Bradford 2025 City of Culture, Rail Story will be offering a number of activities across the weekend of 13-14 September 2025, courtesy of the Vintage Carriages Trust.On both days, entry to the Carriage Works and Engine Shed museums will be free and there will be special tours of the workshops throughout the day.Saturday 13 September (according to Heritage Open Days)Sunday 14 September (according to Bradford 2025)Short performance sketch featuring Branwell Brontë, the only son of the famed Brontë family, as he faces a grilling from the host of a tongue-in-cheek TV game show about the reasons he was dismissed as a station clerk on the Leeds and Manchester Railway (11:30 & 14:00)
Literary bragging rights. That’s what’s promised when you spend the night at Brontë Birthplace – the actual childhood home of the famous Yorkshire authors.Lovingly restored by a passionate committee that strives to preserve the legacy of the Brontë sisters, Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, Bradford, officially opened back in March, welcoming its first visitors after acquiring and restoring the property to reflect how it was when the Brontë family lived there.Transporting guests to the early 19th century, the team has painstakingly sourced antique items as close to the originals (which currently live at the Brontë Parsonage Museum), so guests can be truly immersed in the time period. But the coolest part? The bedrooms have been restored, too, so you can even stay overnight in the Brontë sisters’ former bedroom.
📣 Exciting News! We’re thrilled to announce the opening of the Brontë Birthplace Café this Saturday, alongside Thornton Village Street Market ☕🍰Come and enjoy a nice brew and homemade treats in the historic setting where literary legends were born. While guided tours won’t be available, you’re more than welcome to explore through the house at your own leisure on a self guided tour and our amazing volunteers will be on hand to answer any questions and help you navigate your way round ☺️🕒 Opening from 10am this Saturday, we can’t wait to welcome you!
And 'Branwell Brontë' will face a grilling from the host of a tongue-in-cheek TV show about why he was dismissed as a railway station clerk. (Alistair Shand)
Author Katie Collom: 'I was drawn to Yorkshire as birthplace of the Brontës'Katie Collom needed little more than two words to persuade her to consider Yorkshire as her next home - The Brontës. "A friend who is from the area was really selling Yorkshire and she sold it to me on the basis of the Brontë sisters being from here,” Katie says. “I was like oh okay, if it’s got a literary angle, I’m in.” (Laura Reid)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëJane Eyre is an 1847 novel by English author Charlotte Brontë which tells the story of a plain and simple girl named Jane. As a child, Jane is abused by her Aunt, faces harsh conditions at the Lockwood School, and then becomes a Governess for a man named Mr. Rochester. The novel tells the story of Jane and Mr. Rochester’s romance.Jane Eyre is known for revolutionizing prose fiction as it was the first novel to use the first-person narrative. This created a newfound psychological intensity within novels as it examines a storyline through the eyes of the protagonist. Jane Eyre, along with Pride and Prejudice, is known as not only one of the most famous romance novels but also as one of the most popular novels ever written. (Kathryn Carvel)
The Invention of Charlotte Brontë, by Graham WatsonGraham Watson critiques biography itself while exploring the fraught life, creative output, and frenzied eulogizing of “Jane Eyre” author Charlotte Brontë. No one comes off great – not the father, the husband, nor friends such as writer Elizabeth Gaskell, who takes on the herculean task of chronicling “England’s great enigma.” It’s a compelling look at narrative-making. (Erin Douglass)
Classic adaptationDil Diya Dard Liya (1966) brought Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights into an Indian cultural landscape. The stormy passion of Heathcliff and Catherine was mirrored in Dilip Kumar and Waheeda Rehman’s characters. Its timeless themes of love, revenge and obsession demonstrated how Western literary classics could seamlessly adapt into Bollywood storytelling traditions. (Sonal Khandelwal)
A hat called the Highgrove Visor, inspired by the “timeless silhouette of the bonnet”, is going on sale at the King’s country estate.Award-winning milliner Emily Hurst – one of the first graduates of the Chanel and The King’s Foundation’s millinery fellowship – was specially commissioned to produce her chic straw headwear for the Highgrove Shop.The 15 limited edition pieces – edged in a dark green known as Highgrove Green – were made using the endangered traditional craft of straw plaiting. (...)The original visor, which sparked the creation of the Highgrove one, was navy-edged and called ‘Shade – shall earth no more inspire thee’ – with the end phrase from an Emily Brontë poem about the healing power of nature.
Stanage EdgeStart/finish: Hathersage train station | Maps: OS Explorer OL1 – The Peak District, Dark Peak (1:25k scale) | Distance: 8.8 miles/14km | Ascent: 1,250ft/381m | Duration: 5 to 6 hours | Transport: Northern train services run hourly between Manchester and Sheffield, stopping at HathersageThere is plenty of lay-by parking under Stanage Edge for a short walk and you could approach from Redmires reservoir in the northeast, but this route sees you ascend from Hathersage. Incidentally, the Peak town and its surroundings inspired Charlotte Brontë in her writing of Jane Eyre, the most notable example of which is North Lees Hall (also included in this route) which provided the model for Mr. Rochester’s Thornfield Hall. (Francesca Donovan)
Soy una gran lectora de novela romántica y este libro que recuerda a las grandes historias de amor de Jane Austen y Emily Brontë es mi favorito del verano. (...)Las lectoras de romántica han desarrollado una sensibilidad especial. (...) Históricamente tenemos referentes como Jane Austen, clave del desarrollo del género, que con obras como ‘Orgullo y prejuicio’ o ‘Sentido y sensibilidad’ marcó el camino a seguir. También es importante mencionar a Emily Brönte (sic) y su pasional ‘Cumbres borrascosas’; y no nos olvidamos de firmas más contemporáneas como Julia Quinn de ‘Los Bridgerton’ o Elísabet Benavent. (Nerea Panicello) (Translation)
Can you begin by telling us about your show and what inspired it?Jane Eyre Wasn't a Whore is a part Rom-com, part period piece that will leave you laughing and blocking that guy (yes, that guy!) Brontë fanatic and aspiring actress Anne Brauer, a woman who is staunchly opposed to conventional modern dating. However, things take a gothic turn when she finds herself in a situationship with fellow actor Graham Huntington. Much like in a musical where characters burst into song, in this, Anne bursts out into passages from Brontë novels.I am a huge Brontë fan. When my friends would rant to me about their dating lives and situationships, I would more often than not send a quote from a Brontë novel and say SEE! THIS IS YOU! I think all three of the sisters dissect and explore modern dating in the most accurate, powerful, way I have ever experienced. A lot of the inspiration for this show came from wanting to bring people into that world. (...)What do you hope audiences take away from watching your performance?I really want people to leave feeling seen. If I can get the audience thinking "Why would she do that?" AND "I've totally done that" I will be thrilled. That's what the Brontë novels have consistently done for me. OH and laughing! I want people to leave laughing.
The historic Yorkshire church which helped produce Britain’s most celebrated literary familyOn the 29th of December 1812, a wedding took place which produced Britain’s most celebrated literary family.Maria Branwell, who until then had spent most of her 29 years in Penzance, married the 35-year-old curate of St. Peter’s Church, Hartshead, the Rev. Patrick Brontë.After both her parents had died, she was invited to join her uncle John Fennell and his wife Jane at their home in Yorkshire.Once there, she helped her aunt to run the household of a new boarding school near Rawdon.Her uncle had been appointed headmaster of the school, known today as Woodhouse Grove, and when he required the services of an external classics examiner, he got in touch with old friend Patrick Brontë. (Read more) (Roger Ratcliffe)
Live Wire & Roughhouse Theatre's critically acclaimed production of Charlotte Brontë's timeless classic Jane Eyre: an autobiography is coming to the Greenwich Theatre on 25th & 26th September marking a deeply poignant anniversary in the great novelist's life. (...)As Director Shane Morgan explains “there is no doubt whatever that the devastating impact of Maria and Elizabeth's deaths at just 10 & 11 years old respectively was key to the germination of the Jane Eyre whose orphaned heroine endures childhood loss, rejection and isolation as she embarks on her quest for familial love and somewhere to belong.Adapted by award winning playwright Dougie Blaxland and produced by the same creative team that won the 2021 National Campaign for the Arts Award Live Wire & Roughhouse Theatre's Jane Eyre: an autobiography is in fact a revival of the 2015 production that was hailed “a theatrical tour de force from a company with a rare gift for bringing classics to life with loyalty, energy and intrigue”.Central to bringing Jane Eyre: an autobiography back to the stage 178 years after its original publication is what Movement Director Moira Hunt describes as “its compelling relevance for women in the 21st Century” arguing that “Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre broke the mould of the Victorian female stereotype through its dramatisation of a woman of independent mind and means who refuses to be subservient in any way to her male counterparts.” (Stephi Wild)
The series was an instant hit with fans and dominated the 2007 award season, winning a BAFTA and three Primetime Emmy Awards. Jane Eyre currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.It is based on the book of the same name, which is widely considered one of the greatest novels of all time. Praising Brontë's work online, one wrote: "Everyone should be a fan of Jane Eyre, it’s the greatest novel ever."Another agreed: "I absolutely love and adore this book . It is now my favorite . If you're thinking of reading it, do not hesitate and read it immediately because you'll regret the moments you spent without reading this masterpiece!" (Jennie Buzaglo)
Yorkshire Dales (,..) Walking is an excellent way to take in the Yorkshire Dales’ breathtaking views and charming villages. You’ll also want to hop aboard the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway, and steam through the landscapes that inspired the Brontë sisters. (Roshina Jowaheer & Jo Blyth)
Luxury brands are cottoning on. There’s Remsen’s $200 “die-cast” aluminium pill container, whose “radial” layout of AM and PM divided holes looks a little like an old rotary dial phone ($195, remsen.co), while Anya Hindmarch offers bespoke monogramming on her zipped nylon and tan leather pill pouches (£250 and £295, anyahindmarch.com). There are endless antique silver and brass versions around too, so you can rattle around as authentically as, say, Coleridge or Branwell Brontë. (Harriet Walker)
En un momento de la obra, el comediante se pregunta por qué una presencia que atisba en un entorno inquietante que ni en ‘Cumbres borrascosas’, huye de él. El médico que lo atiende le responde: «Porque dudaría que estuviera usted realmente muerto. La frontera con la vida es muy tenue, apenas una delgada línea». (Alfonso Vázquez) (Translation)
When we think of the Brontës, typically they might be stomping over wild and windy moors surrounding their home in Haworth - looking out into the world but, nonetheless, confined to their own place in it.A perception persists that Charlotte, Anne and Emily ‘didn’t get out much’, but two of our foremost experts on this family know it’s not quite so simple.It is an idea that has manifested because “they are so firmly rooted and associated with Haworth, like snails in a shell,” says Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the literary family’s former home in the Bradford village.“It’s that perception. Which has been encouraged by a lot of the biographies that they lived in this isolated parsonage. But, actually, they did get out quite a bit.”Much of their life away from Haworth did, like any of us, involve the siblings spending plenty of time indoors, where their imaginations could truly run wild.With that in mind, Ann and journalist Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, have been on a journey of discovery to find these places - some well known, some obscure - and put it into a new book Let Me In: The Brontës in Bricks and Mortar.They write about the histories of Haworth Old Post Office, the sister’s Thornton birthplace and, of course, the Brontë Parsonage Museum itself, where Ann has worked for more than three decades.Then there are less-trodden places. “Initially, we were going to cover all the buildings in this country connected with the family, all the domestic buildings,” says Ann.“We actually drew up a list that I think had about 70 different buildings on it, and we decided quite early on that we were going to have to be selective.“We couldn’t cover everything and we didn’t want it to be just a catalogue with a bit of information about each property."We wanted to tell a story, so we picked out not always the best known buildings, but ones that we thought had got something new to say, really. So I think it’ll be a surprise to some people to find some of the buildings that we’ve actually chosen.”In fact, it is not in Yorkshire but in Cornwall - Chapel Street, Penzance, to be precise - where the book begins, as it was the birthplace of the siblings’ mother, Maria Brontë (née Branwell).Mrs Brontë is often “left in the shadows” compared to her husband, Patrick, says Ann, though they did also visit places from his earlier years in Ulster’s County Down.The co-authors wrote about half of the book each, with Ann focusing mostly on the Yorkshire links and Sharon, who is based in London, taking care of the capital and surrounding areas.To her dismay, she found that at Westminster Abbey’s Poets’ Corner, a 1939 memorial to the sisters was missing the diaereses (dots) over the ‘e’ for Brontë.But, as The Yorkshire Post reported in September last year, this was something she finally got corrected after 85 years.Sharon also visited Vanity Fair author William Makepeace Thackeray’s former home in Young Street, Kensington, where Charlotte “went to the dinner party from hell” in 1850, one which resembles passages in her novel Jane Eyre.Charlotte, says Sharon, “was supposed to be the cabaret - (Thackeray) had lined up all his spiky, socialite friends and she just froze because she was so shy”.Of course, Yorkshire locations form a significant part of the book and one motivation behind it, they admit, is that it allowed them to be nosy - and their expertise made getting into people’s homes somewhat easier than it might have been.“We’ve kind of taken advantage of that privileged access that we can get to private houses and homes, and then shared them with other people,” says Ann.“So I think the book is for anybody that’s got an interest in the Brontës, or if they’re nosy, like me, and love looking around people’s houses.”The sisters’ birthplace, a terraced house on Market Street in Thornton, Bradford, is now owned by the public after a community campaign.Ann says: “I was actually one of the trustees on the committee at the time that they acquired the house. So I had that privilege of being able to watch all the renovations happen and hear about things that they discovered about the building on the way.”Kipping House, the nearby home of Mrs Brontë’s friend Elizabeth Firth, is an example of how important details about the family’s lives are linked to buildings which have endured - even if they are contained in what Sharon calls her “deeply boring diary”.“We get that idea of not only Mrs Brontë’s life, but the very young Brontë siblings’ life. We know what Patrick got up to, because he was a man and he was a clergyman, and it all got written down. But finding out what those five happy-ish years were like very much involved understanding Kipping.”Then there was the old Clergy Daughters’ School in Cowan Bridge, just over the border in Lancashire. The older Brontë sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, died of tuberculosis, aged 11 and 10, in 1825. It is thought they caught the infection at the school, which served as the inspiration for the Lowood School in Charlotte’s Jane Eyre.One of the surviving cottages is now a holiday let, so Ann and Sharon went to stay and, returning a second time with their friend Jane Sellars, former director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, she declared that “this place oozes Brontë”.Ann says: “It was quite a spooky house. You always had that fear at night that there’d be little hunched faces peering in at you.”They also cover Haworth Old Post Office, where the sisters would have posted their manuscripts and letters, and witnessed the renovation of that property, which “was in a quite a derelict state the first time we got to see it and of course, now it’s a thriving cafe bar at the top of Main Street,” says Ann.Sharon says: “These are not just fusty old places that nobody cares about that are not important anymore."They certainly are important because they connect us with our country, connect us with our own literary heritage. They connect us with our own sense of place, and it’s a constant need to sound a battle cry for these places.”In a chapter called A Lament, Sharon writes ruefully about the ruined state of Lousy Farm, Liversedge, a former home of Patrick.A cheerier read comes in the form of The Branwell Pub Crawl, an entire section dedicated to the Black Bull and Cross Roads Inn at Haworth, Lord Nelson Inn at Luddenden, and the Old Cock in Halifax.One building, perhaps above all, is of special interest not only to the authors but to Brontë fans the world over.Ann says: “Of course, for me the key building is this one, the Parsonage, because I’ve worked here for 36 years now - so I’ve almost been here longer than the Brontës - and I probably know this house better than any other."And actually that made it harder, I struggled more with writing the piece on the Parsonage, I think, than the rest of them.”It is, she says, “difficult to try and decide on what would be interesting to other people”. There is new information in her piece relating to structural changes “which were always thought to have happened, but which we now know didn’t happen”, but she has also treated it like a guided tour, taking the reader around the museum, including personal anecdotes during her time.Sharon says: “It’s a tour de force and I think readers are going to go straight to that, if I’m honest, because it’s chapter and verse."Who’s going to know more and tell you more and explain more about this iconic house across the world than Ann, because she knows every brick, don’t you?”“Well, I should do, after all of that time,” says Ann. (John Blow)
North Yorkshire, with its windswept heaths and sea-battered cliffs, is the brooding landscape that inspired Emily Brontë’s ‘wild and windy moors’ in Wuthering Heights. While its romantic pull remains, the days of staying in dated guesthouses and crumbling country houses are over. (Annabelle Spranklen)
Emerging in poetry and literature, the pastoral dates all the way back to Ancient Greece. Hesiod’s poem “Works and Days,” dating to 700 B.C.E., for instance, already expresses a longing for a bygone life in nature. Across the centuries, a host of writers have taken up the pastoral, including Ovid, Virgil, Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, and Thomas Hardy. (Katie White)
On screen and off, in work as at home, Stalter seems to seek out soul-deep connections. It’s the kind of romantic quest that, like a wounded American girl giving love a second shot in the land of Wuthering Heights and Notting Hill, you can’t help but root for. (Judy Berman)
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