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Tuesday 20 May 2014

Charlotte Brontë’s Scottish jaunt

A record of Charlotte Brontë’s Scottish jaunt in the visitors’ book at Abbotsford, Walter Scott’s home
Helen MacEwan, Malcolm Morrison (Abbotsford guide), Kathleen Shortt

Helen MacEwan writes:
On a trip to Edinburgh on 10-11 May I met up with Kathleen Shortt, the Brontë Society’s representative for Scotland. We went south to the border country for a tour of Sir Walter Scott’s house, Abbotsford, by Malcolm Morrison, a BS member who lives in Melrose and works at the house as a volunteer guide. Scott’s literary creations were of course hugely influential on the Brontës, as on so many other writers of the period; in 1834, advising her friend Ellen Nussey on which novels to read, Charlotte Brontë had written: ‘For fiction read Scott alone – all novels after him are worthless’.

Abbotsford, his amazing and highly personal creation in stone, was to ruin him financially, though he eventually managed to write his way out of debt. We were privileged to have not only a private tour of the house with Malcolm but also a private viewing of the visitors’ book that covers 1850. The book, whose binding is in too fragile a condition to allow it to be permanently displayed, was brought out for us by Sandra Mackenzie, the Heritage and Learning Officer, and opened at the page where Charlotte Brontë and George Smith signed it during their visit to Abbotsford on 5 July of that year along with 17 other visitors. . Charlotte had joined her publisher for a couple of days’ sight-seeing in Scotland when he and his sister went to fetch their younger brother home from his school in Edinburgh for the summer vacation. She was originally to have joined the Smiths for a longer tour of Scotland but her time with them was curtailed, probably because of the disapproval of Ellen and others of her jaunts with the unmarried Smith.

Charlotte and George Smith signatures in the visitors' book

Despite the brevity of her Scottish trip Charlotte waxed lyrical in letters about her glimpse of Edinburgh, Abbotsford and Melrose, telling her friend Laetitia Wheelwright that ‘Edinburgh compared to London is like a vivid page of history compared to a huge dull treatise on Political Economy – and as to Melrose and Abbotsford the very names possess music and magic.’

The visit to Abbotsford was magical for us too, since apart from the fascination of the house itself there was the thrill of seeing Charlotte’s signature – a record of a trip she enjoyed so much, at the height of her friendship with her handsome young publisher.



Wednesday 30 April 2014

Fifth Brontë Pilgrimage Sunday 6 July

This is the advertisement for the event, which is not organised by the Brontë Society:

Walk and Worship the Brontë Way

The Vicar of Tunstall, The Revd Carus Wilson set up the Clergy Daughters’ School at Cowan Bridge in January 1824 which Charlotte Bronte and three of her sisters attended  before the elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth died of consumption in 1825.She subsequently drew on her memories of this experience as the basis for ‘ Lowood School’ in  Jane Eyre. In 1824 all pupils walked to Tunstall Church for Matins- apparently Leck church was not large enough- ate a packed lunch in a room over the porch ( a parvise) and attended Evensong before returning to Cowan Bridge. In 1825 the latter church was expanded and the pupils were saved this long walk.

On Sunday 6 July it is proposed to commemorate this experience by services in both churches starting with Holy Communion at 8am in Leck, St Peter’s Church (car parking available), followed by a visit to the ‘fever’ graves of some of the pupils of the Clergy Daughters’ School.

Those who cannot attend this service can go to the Fraser Hall, Cowan Bridge, where all will assemble to leave as a group at 9.30am ( drinks will be available). The group will then walk to Tunstall following the same route the girls did. (Please wear suitable clothing and footwear) Matins will be held at Tunstall at 11am. The service will be in the style of the period. Bring a packed lunch to eat in the comfort of Tunstall Village Hall-where drinks will be available prior to the return walk.

Refreshments will be then available in the Fraser Hall, Cowan Bridge prior to Evensong at 4.30pm at St Peter’s Leck. As little or as much as you wish, of the Pilgrimage, can be undertaken.

Tuesday 22 April 2014

Spring Walk from Wycoller Hall on 11 May

The walk is approximately five miles long - and will include Clam Bridge, Walton's Cross, waterfalls and splendid panoramic views from the Panopticon.
Tickets are £5 and can be bought either by cheque in advance (payable to The Brontë Society) or can be purchased on the day with cash or on http://www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on/117/spring-walk-2014/119
A car park is available at Wycoller Country Park.


Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës

Review by Elisa Fierro
“Reader, I did not marry him.” This is the arresting beginning of Vanessa Gebbie’s Chapter XXXVIII – Conclusion (and a little bit of added cookery) with abject apologies to Charlotte Brontë, one of the short stories in the new collection Red Room: New Short Stories Inspired by the Brontës (ISBN 978-0-9572897-3-4).

Red Room, edited by A. J. Ashworth and published in paperback by Unthank Books in 2013, is comprised of twelve short stories and a poem, written by some of Britain’s best contemporary writers to celebrate the Brontë sisters and their unexhausted modernism. According to the editor, part of the sale profits of the book will be donated to the Brontë Birthplace Trust to help spread awareness of both the village and the building where the three sisters and their brother, Branwell, were born.

The Brontë Birthplace, located at 72/74 Market Street in Thornton (West Yorkshire), was a museum until 2007, thanks to the passion of the late novelist Barbara Whitehead. After being sold, it has recently become a café. At the time of the sale, the Brontë Birthplace Trust was raising the necessary funds to acquire the building, and their mission is now to try to secure it at a future date for Brontë lovers worldwide.

This collection of short stories, Red Room, is a continued commitment of Unthank Books towards contemporary short fiction and classic literature. The contributors – all writers of remarkable standing in contemporary British literature and winners of prestigious awards like, for example, the BBC National Short Story Award - have all waived their fees. Their generosity is shared by Unthank Books, as mentioned earlier, to help the Trust give the Brontë Birthplace its deserved position among the most important literary birthplaces in the world.

The Brontës and their work inspire all of the carefully crafted stories in Red Room, but a previous knowledge of the sisters’ novels – although certainly desirable – is not absolutely necessary in order to enjoy this book.  Everybody can find something to his or her taste: the authors deal with a variety of themes (from children abuse to supernatural sheep), write in different styles, and set their stories in the past as well as in the present, showing how human traits and situations described by the three sisters transcend time and place.

The previously mentioned Chapter XXXVIII – Conclusion (and a little bit of added cookery) with abject apologies to Charlotte Brontë, by Vanessa Gebbie, offers a humorously alternative ending to Jane Eyre, where Jane and Rochester do not marry but live as companions, while Rochester develops an interest for cooking with a penchant for oddly mixed ingredients (after all, he is blind!). The author’s (never random) good humor – through Jane’s first person narrative – doesn’t spare any character of the novel, including St John Rivers, whose fate is described in a way highly appropriate for him: “St John is unmarried: he never will marry now (Who would marry him, reader? Look at the verbiage up with which one would have to put)”.

Modern values are the theme of Rowena Macdonald’s A Child of Pleasure. Inspired by the relationship between Lucy Snow and Ginevra Fanshawe in Villette, the story is about Liza Frost, a teacher giving private lessons, and Jemima Fenchurch, her student. Jemima is not in the least interested in passing her exam, and often tries to demean Liza by pointing out her plain appearance, her solitary life, and her lack of wealth. Jemima is “about as sensitive as a brick”, has been indulged all her life, is self-centered, and only believes in beauty and money. However, at the end of the story, Liz and the reader are left wondering if, after all, Jemima was right. “I had been wrong: she was nobody’s appendage” – don’t we all want to be a celebrity like her, without a care in this world and sure that we will “suffer as little as any human being I have ever known”?

Heart-rending is the atmosphere of Carys Davies’ Bonnet.  The headwear of the title is one that Charlotte, on her way to meet her publisher George Smith in London, has embellished with a new lining, “a lustrous, pearly pink like the interior of a shell”. Smith has written Charlotte a letter telling her about his recent engagement – a letter that she had not yet received when she embarked on her trip. In reality, the trip never took place, because at the time Charlotte had stopped going to London to see her publisher. However, there has always been much speculation about the feelings that Charlotte might have entertained for the young, charming George. They were certainly friends, and it is possible that she – bereft and alone after the death of all her siblings – might have hoped to have him as life companion. Throughout the story, Charlotte is acutely aware of her plain appearance and clothing, especially during the meeting: “…  it is the worst imaginable thing for her to sit and feel the bright new silk around her face, like a shout, and see how embarrassed he is, how he can’t look at it.” In Victorian England, like today in our modern, multicultural, open-minded society (sarcasm intended), there is an incredible amount of pressure for women to be physically attractive. It takes a lot of self-esteem not to feel, like Charlotte, “always always acutely and painfully conscious” of the way we look as opposed to the way we are expected to look. I am sure that many women can relate to that – I for one certainly do.

I have chosen to use these three stories to illustrate how varied and multifaceted the collection Red Room actually is, and it is a totally subjective choice. I do not doubt that every reader will find his or her favorites, as the rest of the stories combine elements of fiction, realism, fantasy, even fairy-tale, and are filled with characters who, while based on the Brontë works, are strong in their own right.

In My Dear Miss … Zoë King imagines a lively epistolary exchange between Jane Eyre and Emma Woodhouse, where the latter – faithful to her character – tries to set Jane up with “a certain young clergyman, Mr. Elton, a handsome and intelligent addition to our circle.”

Contrasting with this playfulness are Sarah Dobbs’ Behind all the Closed Doors, dealing with the loss of a parent at a very early age, and Alison Moore’s Stonecrop, where an abusive stepfather gets what he deserves from his young victim.

On the other hand, stories like The Curate’s Wife, by Felicity Skelton, will appeal to lovers of historical fiction and romance, for its depiction of a fortuitous meeting between Charlotte and a well-known historical character – with interesting consequences.

Subsequently, Ashton and Elaine, by David Constantine, is a fairy-tale version of Heathcliff and Catherine’s story in which an adopted child finds a loving family and a supportive teacher, so that we can all be hopeful for him and his future.

Although the stories show a variety of subjects, two elements tie them all together: their authors’ captivating imaginations and their desire to bring the Brontë sisters to a wide modern audience, an audience who might or might not have a good literary background knowledge. At the end of the book, actually, the reader with less familiarity with the Brontës will find help with understanding the context of each story in the final section, entitled Inspirations, where every author explains how he or she came to write that particular piece of short fiction.



Being a Brontë lover myself, I am always an avid reader of anything related to the sisters and am sometimes disappointed by what is published; but this collection did not disappoint! The works in this book show how modern the Brontës will always be, how they can still inspire good literature, how the characters they created can and shall hook a contemporary reader, and make him or her reflect on the human condition. Charlotte, Emily, and Anne are alive and well, and they are waiting for you in the Red Room.

(Elissa Fierro is Representative of the Heartland West Region, one of the American Chapters of the Brontë Society. She teaches Italian at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.)

Thursday 20 March 2014

Friday 7 March 2014

Brontë Festival of Women's Writing

Friday 14 – Sunday 16 March
Join us for the fourth Brontë Festival of Women’s Writing at the home of the Brontës. An exciting range of events will take place throughout the weekend, including talks, workshops, readings and family events. There’s something for everyone!

To book tickets or for further information contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Friday 14 March
Jackie Kay
West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth, 7.30pm
Join the 2013 Brontë Society Writer in Residence, Jackie Kay as she opens the fourth Bronte Festival of Women’s Writing. Jackie Kay grew up in Glasgow and has written all her life, publishing novels, poetry and short stories. Several of her adult poetry collections have won or have been shortlisted for awards. Her first novel Trumpet won the Author’s Club First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. Red Dust Road won the Scottish Book of the Year award and was picked as a World Book Night title.
Tickets: £6
To book tickets contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Saturday 15 March
Festival Fun at the Parsonage!
Brontë Parsonage Museum, 10am-4pm
Visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum for some festival family fun. Follow clues to a literary trail around the village or play a giant game of Wuthering Heights poetry on the front lawn.
Free with admission to the Parsonage.

Saturday 15 March
Louise Crosby: Creative Writing Workshop West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth, 10am-1pm With the recent growth in popularity of graphic novels and memoirs this workshop provides a simple introduction to working with words and pictures together.  Participants will create their own short graphic memoir inspired by a Brontë poem.  This may form the basis for a future graphic short story, visual diary or even the start of your own graphic novel!
The course is suitable for writers and artists of all abilities.
Tickets: £12
To book tickets contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Saturday 15 March
Readings by Ilkely and Calderdale Young Writers
Bronte Parsonage Museum, 12pm
Hear Ilkley and Calderdale Young Writers in the rooms of the Parsonage as they read their own poems inspired by the Brontës and the museum’s collection.
Free with admission to the Parsonage.

Saturday 15 March
Jackie Kay: Creative Writing Workshop
West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth 2-5pm
A rare opportunity to join award-winning poet, novelist and short story writer Jackie Kay in this creative writing workshop inspired by her 2013 Brontë Writer’s Residency.
Tickets: £15. Booking essential.
To book tickets contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Saturday 15 March
Sarah Dunant: Blood and Beauty
West Lane Baptist Centre, Haworth, 7.30pm
Internationally bestselling writer Sarah Dunant visits Haworth to discuss her latest novel, Blood and Beauty, which takes on the Italian Renaissance’s most infamous family: the Borgias. Sarah Dunant is famous for her Italian historical novels: The Birth of Venus, In the Company of the Courtesan and Sacred Hearts, which have been translated into more than thirty languages and bring voice to the lives of three different women in three different historical contexts. She has worked widely in television, radio and print, has written ten novels and edited two collections of essays.
Tickets £6
To book tickets contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Sunday 16 March
Drop-in Creative Writing
Bronte Parsonage Museum, 11-4
As part of our Festival of Women's Writing, visit the Parsonage for a drop-in creative writing session. Create your own piece of writing inspired by the Brontës and the museum collection.
Free with admission to the Parsonage

Sunday 16 March
Rebecca Stirrup: Creative Writing Workshop
Brontë Parsonage Museum, 10.30am-1.30pm
Gothic fantasy is that wonderful combination of horror, folklore, fairytale and myth.  Monsters may exist in these worlds, but often it is the humans that are monstrous.  There is a potency to gothic fantasy that, in our attempts to tame the beasts, is often lost today.  Vampires should not be considered good boyfriend material, werewolves are not our friends (at least not during the full moon), and while our heroes strive for goodness they do so at a cost.  This workshop will explore gothic fantasy through excerpts and through writing exercises.  You will develop ideas for your own gothic fantasies, and generate and develop the motifs and symbols of the genre in your writing. 
For everyone from the budding to the experienced writer.
Tickets: £12
To book tickets contact louisa.briggs@bronte.org.uk / 01535 640188 or book online at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on

Thursday 6 February 2014

Jane Austen vs Emily Brontë

If you are in London on 26 February, you might like to take part in this literary combat organised by Intelligence Squared. Here is what they say:
Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England – a landscape of Palladian mansions and handsome parsonages, peopled by rigidly-divided classes. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath the genteel conversation. Never has a novelist written comic prose with such subtlety and restraint. If you want to understand the early 19th century – the power of money and inheritance, the clothes, the interior décor – Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are worth a dozen history books, and any number of second-rate novels by Austen’s contemporaries.
That’s the argument of the Janeites, but to the aficionados of Emily Brontë they are the misguided worshippers of a circumscribed mind. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë dispensed with Austen’s niceties and the upper-middle class drawing rooms of Bath and the home counties. Her backdrop is the savage Yorkshire moors, her subject the all-consuming passions of the heart. The story of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw is a full-blooded tale of violent attraction, thwarted love, death and the supernatural that makes Jane Austen look mundane – and clutches at the reader’s heart with a vigour and directness unmatched in English literature.
To help you decide who should be crowned queen of English letters we have the lined up the best advocates to make the case for each writer. They will be calling on actors, including stars Dominic West and Sam West, to illustrate their arguments with readings from the novels.
More at this website
The Queens of English Literature Debate,  
with actors Dominic West and Sam West

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 26 2014, 6.45PM

Royal Geographical Society  

1 Kensington Gore,
London,
SW7 2AR
020 7591 3000


Friday 31 January 2014

Brontës at the Brigantes

The York Brontë Group is now under way, meeting once a month at The Brigantes Bar, Micklegate, York.  The first, very informal get-together, began with a very short talk about laudanum and other common nineteenth century remedies.  The discussion which followed widened to cover a number of related topics including what Mr Brontë did and – perhaps more significantly - did not annotate in his copy of Graham’s Modern Domestic Medicine and whether Emily’s final illness really was consumption.

The next meeting of the group will be on Thursday, 27 February at 2 pm when a discussion about modern responses to the works of the Brontës will be led by Belinda Hakes who is Head of English at Wyke College.

In addition to discussion session a programme of visits is planned and full details will be released soon. For further information please email Chris Went (Trustee) at brontemania@gmail.com and you can follow the Group on Twitter @YorkBronteGroup 

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Wuthering Heights - a new musical

Adapted from the novel by Emily Brontë
Music, Book and Lyrics by Catherine McDonald

Dates - 11th - 15th February 2014 @ 7:30pm (plus a matinee on Saturday @ 2:30pm)
Venue - The Barons Court Theatre, London.
Tickets - £10 / £8.50 concession
Box Office - 0208 932 4747

About the Writer / Composer
Catherine McDonald completed David Edgar's Playwriting Masters Degree and has enjoyed a number of successes with play scripts and musicals being produced across the country and on ITV1.  Her play Once Upon A Winter is published by Eldridge Editors in the US, and she has recently won the nationwide Mardibooks World War One Short Story competition for her story Homecoming.

Catherine was short-listed for the BBC Writer's Academy for her play The Kittens in the Bag, after which Theatre 503 programmed her short play What Sam Told Me as part of their Rapid Write Rewind night, celebrating the best of their Rapid Response evenings over the past few years.  

Catherine received critical acclaim for her musical adaptation of Peter Pan Never Land at the Edinburgh Fringe, which went on to be performed outdoors in Kensington Gardens, and was then featured on ITV1's Fortune, winning £15,000 to donate to Gt Ormond St Children's Hospital.  

**  Catherine and her theatre company came to Haworth in 2008 and performed her adaptation of Jane Eyre for the Bronte Society AGM weekend, to great applause. This should be well worth seeing!

Monday 20 January 2014

Wuthering Heights in Postwar Japan

Mizae Mizumura
Several people have emailed the blog about this article - A True Novel - recently published in The Japan Times. French Literature scholar Mizae Mizumura has updated Wuthering Heights and relocated it to Japan soon after the Second World War, which brings to mind novels by David Peace like Occupied City. Mizumura's novel is described as 'a real page-turner' and also 'in some respects, more interesting' (!) The article continues: 'A True Novel is mostly told by a servant named Fumiko to a young man she happens to meet, who tells it in turn to a character called Minae Mizumura, a novelist writing a book not unlike this one and living a life not unlike the novelist Minae Mizumura’s. Fumiko is certainly Mizumura’s Ellen Dean, but Scheherazade seems present as well. Fumiko is as unreliable a narrator as Ellen Dean, and just as some have seen Ellen Dean, rather than Heathcliff, as the true villain of Bronte’s novel, so it is hard to find Fumiko blameless...'

Translation into English is by Juliet Winters Carpenter. Reviews welcome. Thanks to Paul Daniggelis, Naoko Ota and Keiko Abe for informing us.

Article can be read in full here.

Friday 29 November 2013

Brontë Moments by Paul Daniggelis

Brontë Society US Region 3 Representative Paul Daniggelis writes:
I'd like to announce the release of my new book, Brontë Moments -- A Compilation, 149+ pages, softbound, 8"x10"  The book is self published through Createspace and may be ordered at:
This is a potpourri of several previously published articles (albeit with additional material and photos), unpublished articles, plus three fiction pieces (short story poem, novella) all related to the literary Brontë family. It is accompanied by an autographed inscription reading, "I consider myself privileged to be able to write about this most remarkable family".

The book is dedicated to the recently deceased Joan Helena Quarm, Professor Emerita from the University of Texas at El Paso. (1920 -2010) Joan was a long time Brontë Society member who has written an unpublished 1000+ page tribute to the Brontës, a copy of which resides in the Brontë Parsonage Museum Library. It is entitled Touching the BrontësProf Quarm was also considered the First Lady of El Paso Theater, having created the still running Gilbert and Sullivan Theater which has some 45 years of longevity.

My biographical stats:
I was for a half dozen years, the Region 3 (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma) Representative of the US Brontë Society and for many years before a member of the UK-based Society. As representative I compiled, wrote, edited and printed a quarterly Brontë Newsletter. I have also published a biography of Catalonian sculptor, Urbici Soler. See Rodant Pel Mon. An anti-designated hitter baseball novel (Torii Cantu is . . The DH), and a soon to be released fantasy about a boy and a pony (Aldebaran and Prince Lux). I expect to release in 2014 a book of fictional murders (Murder in New York). On the back burner is the adult novel, The Ailanthus Affair,a skip-sequel to Henry James' Washington Square.
  
Theresa Connors, U.S Brontë Society Representative from 2002-2009 writes:
From a 20th century reinterpretation of a Wuthering Heights' love story, to interviews with descendants of the Brontë family, the book Brontë Moments includes something of interest for every variety of Brontë fan.  I can truly say that this is a one of a kind work:  the kaleidoscope of  information in Brontë Moments can not be found in any other Brontë book.

Among the many articles, essays and appreciations [read fiction] in the book, I was particularly compelled by the novella Forever Amber What Brontë fan hasn’t fantasized about going back to the mid-19th century and spending a day in Haworth at the Parsonage?  As I read the story, I found myself right there in the parlor with Charlotte and Anne,  and watched Emily walk by as she took Keeper for a walk.  How reluctantly I had to leave Haworth and the three sisters as the teller of the tale said his farewells. This is a book that is perfect for the Brontë completist in all of us!

Thursday 7 November 2013

Ian Emberson 1936 - 2013


The unexpected death on Monday of writer and artist Ian Emberson, who was much involved with the Brontë Society, has caused great distress for all who knew him.


Ian's website - http://www.ianemberson.co.uk/


Isobel Stirk writes:
It is with a feeling of great sadness that I write of the death of Ian Emberson who died, unexpectedly, on 4 November. Ian was a life member of the Brontë Society and was a very good friend of mine and his cheerful and friendly presence will be missed by so many people.


He had numerous articles printed in Brontë Society Gazette and Brontë Studies and his
e-book Seaport at Sunrise,  with its background of Cyprus in the 1950s, was published recently. He was an impressive artist, and his postcards and the illustrations in his own books and those of other authors show his wonderful talent. As a retired music librarian he had a great love of music, and beautiful settings have been composed for his poetry and an opera to his libretto. His knowledge of the Brontë family was vast and his book Pilgrims from Loneliness was an exploration and interpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s  Jane Eyre and Villette - drawn from books which had had an early influence on her mind. He and his wife Catherine discovered recollections of the Brontës by George Sowden, younger brother of Sutcliffe Sowden who had officiated at Charlotte’s wedding, which had lain forgotten for one hundred years. They subsequently published them.

The funeral service will be on Monday 18 November at 1.30pm in St Mary’s Church in the centre of Todmorden. Burial is at 3pm and it is so fitting for Ian, a great lover of nature, the countryside and the outdoors, that his final resting place will be in Cross Stone graveyard - high on the hills above the Todmorden valley. The four Brontë children were very familiar with Cross Stone as in September 1829 they went there with Aunt Branwell to stay with their great-aunt’s widower- the Reverend John Fennell. It was from the vicarage there that Charlotte wrote her first ever letter, a letter to her father back home in Haworth. In July 2005 Ian co-authored, with Catherine, an article, Turns in the circle of friendship: ‘Uncle Fennell’, 1762-1841, which appeared in Brontë Studies.

Deepest sympathy is sent to Catherine and I am sure that those who knew Ian will agree with me that we are much poorer for his death but certainly richer for having known him.


Catherine Emberson writes: 
Since Ian's death I have received over 250 cards, letters and messages of sympathy,  many from Brontë friends worldwide - thank you all.

Ian was incredibly gifted in many of the arts and in addition to his articles and lectures many will know his beautiful poetry and artwork, especially through book illustrations and postcards - all of which sprang from a well of deep and  highly sensitive creativity.    Anne's insightful comment (see below) sums up Ian's contribution perfectly '...he brought love to his scholarship and this is the best kind...'     Ian's was an important legacy and when I regain my strength somewhat I will do my best to maintain it.

My ever grateful thanks are due to Isobel Stirk for the lovely tribute, for her dear friendship over the years, and especially for her comforting support at this difficult time."



Monday 21 October 2013

Kirsty Wark at the Literary Luncheon in Ilkley

Richard Wilcocks writes:
Ruth Pitt, Ann Sumner (BPM Director) and Kirsty Wark.  Photo by Richard Wilcocks
A familiar face for most of her audience, which was sitting around tables in the long restaurant room of the Wheatley Arms in Ilkley, Kirsty Wark spoke engagingly – of course – about the books which have influenced her since her early days and which she can not live without. For the enlightenment of non-British readers of this blog, Kirsty Wark is best known as the long-term female presenter of the nightly BBC current affairs programme Newsnight. She has also hosted the weekly Arts and Cultural review and comment show, The Review Show, and has interviewed a long list of famous and infamous people. On this occasion, she was interviewed by the accomplished Ruth Pitt, a television veteran who knew exactly which buttons to press.

After a message from Chair of Brontë Society Council Sally Macdonald, who was unable to be present, and which included a tribute to Bob Barnard, Kirsty Wark revealed that she had entered the game herself as a novelist, with The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, described as ‘a multi-generational story of love and belonging set on the Scottish island of Arran’ after fielding jokey comments about her second place in a Celebrity Masterchef series. “I used a different part of my brain I didn’t know I had,” she told us. “The power of research is very important. There was a prosaic start to the whole business. I had the bones of an idea when I was on Arran a long time ago, then picked up the threads years later… I don’t work quickly…and it is exhilarating to work with an editor. She calls what she does ‘invisible mending’" The novel will be launched in March 2014, but can be ordered now.

The first book she picked was a poetry book for reading out loud published in 1957 which contains Boats sail on the rivers by Christina Rossetti, and the second was The Rattlebag, the poetry anthology put together by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney. “I just adore Seamus Heaney – a wonderful man – humane and sympathetic.” She has interviewed him, naturally.

After diverting briefly to architecture (“I love the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright, but when I read about him I found he was an absolute bastard who treated women very badly”) she moved on to Robert Burns, and revealed that, unsurprisingly, she had grown up learning Tam O’Shanter. “Oral literature is so important, especially for your children.”

Sylvia Townsend Warner’s 1920s satirical novel Lolly Willowes, about a woman who moves out of town to escape her appalling relatives and who becomes a witch, is greatly admired, by herself (and by Donna Tartt, whom she has recently interviewed) because it is “about the otherness of women” and it was at this point that she broke off to speak about “the new misogyny”, quoting Germaine Greer, who thinks that “we are in danger of losing all the gains made” for women. She was appalled (in tune with everybody in the room, probably) by the “extraordinary fuss” and the vicious comments from some which had accompanied the putting of Jane Austen’s head on a banknote.

“I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott when I was about ten, sitting in a window seat. It has never been out of print for good reasons… I recognized the scenes where they are making jam and bottling plums, because that is what we did in our home when I was a child.”

The theme of displacement came next, and we were told about No Great Mischief by Alistair McCloud, the title being a phrase from a statement by General Wolfe, famous for the storming of the heights of Abraham at Quebec, who describes the members of the MacDonald clan who fought under his command by writing in a letter, "They are hardy, intrepid, accustomed to a rough country, and no great mischief if they fall." It is mainly about leaving home and the old country, which links with her own family history.

Ellis Lacey is the biddable daughter of at the heart of Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn, an exile from County Wexford who ends up in New York. “Toibin writes so brilliantly about women.”

Rider Haggard’s She was a surprising item on her list: “It was originally chosen possibly simply because it was in the bookcase at home. Yes, it is dated but it is a strong adventure story and it gives an insight into how conservative colonialists thought at the time.”

After mentioning that she does not like using Kindle, she moved back to strong women with Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace, which she considers to be better than The Handmaid’s Tale, “a lovely book which was made into one of the most rubbishy films I have ever seen.”

We got to Wuthering Heights in the end. She has read it to her children:  horrified by Heathcliff, they thought that the character had no redeeming features at all and that the novel is full of cruelty. Perceptive children. She elaborated on the theme of landscape-based writing and on timeless relationships (“Everybody makes bad choices sometimes…”) and said that she disliked the film directed by Andrea Arnold. 

Donna Tartt must be fresh in her mind after the recent chat on the occasion of her new book Goldfinch. “She is a wonderful author…she takes her time… she is captivated by the research… and she left eight months of work on the floor.”

Kirsty Wark was definitely a popular choice of speaker, warmly received, as they say, and much commented upon afterwards. Plenty of people could be seen jotting down the titles. She went on to be interviewed by Ann Sumner at an event organised by the Ilkley Literature Festival at the King's Hall, before driving back to Glasgow.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Robert Barnard Obituary


Robert Barnard 1936 - 2013

Bob died in his sleep yesterday at the Grove Court Nursing Home in Leeds, after weakening frighteningly quickly. Well known in the Brontë Society (he was Chairman twice), he was a professor, a scholar, an opera lover and an award-winning crime writer who was also a good personal friend of long standing, for me and many others. It is shocking news, even though it is not completely unexpected. Fuller tributes and obituaries will follow in the coming weeks. (RW)

Funeral: Wednesday  2 October   11am  Armley Hill Top Cemetery  Leeds LS12 3PZ



Memories of Bob (Sally McDonald)


Guardian Obituary


Yorkshire Post Obituary


Telegraph Obituary

New York Times Obituary

Independent Obituary

Black Mask Obituary

Crime writer Martin Edwards remembers


Obituary for Brontë Society Gazette

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Bob Barnard, who died in September after weakening frighteningly quickly, was encyclopaedic - a reference point, a source of knowledge, a repository of facts – but more importantly he was generous, friendly and open with just about everyone with whom he came into contact.  I first came to know him, and to take a place in his network of friends, back in the nineties in our home town of Leeds. Although he was the reason I joined the Society, I remember that when we met, usually at his house, Brontë matters were not always prominent, because his interests and enthusiasms were wide-ranging.

We were often at the same meetings of Brontë Society Council. He was Chairman twice, and for most of the time he was meticulous in his attention to detail (he kept a rule book to hand), an obvious believer in the principles of democracy at all levels, amiable and reasonable in the face of turbulence, and efficient. In difficult periods, he was a reliable helmsman in spite of the fact that the crew was occasionally peevish. His gravitas, that of a man everyone knew was the principal scholar in the room, was always there, but he never talked down, presenting himself with modesty and a kind of mischievous charm, a fact which would be confirmed by any member who chatted with him during a June weekend. He was a strong influence on the Society’s development.

The significance of his Brontë –related publications, especially his learned, attractive and accessible Emily Brontë in the British Library’s Writers’ Lives series, seems to be growing amongst academics and non-academics, and they have been well documented elsewhere, for example in Brontë Studies, as has his position in the world of crime fiction by other writers who revered him, so in this brief valediction I shall stay on the personal level.

Bob loved Dickens - he defended his 1974 thesis on him at Bergen University, where he was a popular lecturer, in “a large hall which was completely packed” according to his wife Louise – and the dogs he rescued were given the names of characters in the novels, like Pickwick, and Jingle. A cat still thrives, called Durdles, from The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He admired Ibsen, whose plays he had read and seen performed in both Norwegian and English, especially The Master Builder, and he was “easily disgusted”, he once said, by ‘true crime’ writing.

He had a passion for opera, choosing to live in Leeds after his return from Norway because Opera North is based there, and we often saw the same performances, discussing them later at length. Donizetti was one of his favourite composers, but the music which most moved him, he told me, was from Britten’s Peter Grimes – the Sea Interludes. Two of these, Dawn and Moonlight, were played at the funeral in October.


Our sympathies are with Louise, who wishes me to give her personal thanks to the many people who have sent her cards and kind letters.


Joan Bellamy writes:
Robert Barnard was a creative force in the endeavours of the Brontë Society, based in Haworth. A member of its council and chairman for many years, he encouraged and contributed to academic research into the works and lives of the Brontës while ensuring that the interests and enthusiasms of the less professionally engaged were catered for. After steering it through some quite stormy times, in the end he guided it safely into port. He will be much missed; the success of the society's activities today is largely due to him. (from The Guardian 30 September 2013)

Guardian Obituary