Jane Eyre in Jeans

Are you “breaking the ice in the morning, scared what the references say?”

David Scott Crawford, Chicago singer-songwriter has penned a new genre of music for his album Belle Époque. He calls it ‘Pop Nouveau.’ It gives him the opportunity to combine music with literature - two things he knows well. As an independent artist, Crawford finds his song themes from extraordinary places or, as in this case, remarkable people.

In “Jane Eyre in Jeans” Crawford weaves Charlotte Brontë’s beloved heroine through a pop/ballad melody of piano, bass, drums, guitar and even mandolin. Lines such as “You swallowed the storybook ending in a Styrofoam cup full of tea” paint a vivid picture of Jane’s world meshed with our own modern-day dilemmas. The result is what Chicago writer and art critic Lucia Mauro calls, “racy, maudlin and romantic.”

Belle Époque, meaning “Beautiful Era,” refers to the glorious late ninetieth/ early twentieth century period of France. The album hosts an array of literary references from the start of track one, including Millais’ Ophelia model Lizzie Siddall, portrayed in “A Merry Little Afternoon.” Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt and Jim Morrison make an appearance in track thirteen entitled “Père Lachaise,” the setting of France’s famous City of the Dead Cemetery. But it’s not all about death.

The sweeping poetic images we see when listening to this album, in part, stem from Crawford’s own experiences, living and traveling to several countries including Scotland, Libya, South America, Australia and England, combined with his passion for literature in historical context. His improvisational, compositional, and piano playing skills are all self-taught. Belle Époque was recorded at the Chicago Recording Company & Beachaus Studios in Chicago with Crawford on Steinway and Böesendorfer grand pianos.

The album was mixed in England by David Hentschel and mastered at Abbey Road Studios, London. It boasts collaborative artists such as string arrangements by Paul Buckmaster and guitar solos by Mark Goldenberg. Lisa McClowry provides gutsy backing vocals for “Jane Eyre in Jeans.”

For more information on Belle Époque and to listen to “Jane Eyre in Jeans” visit: www.davidscottcrawford.com or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dscrawford.com

Belle Époque = Literature with Rock!

Kim Crawford

Jane Eyre - The Musical - in Dorset

One of the South’s largest youth theatre companies has embarked on its most ambitious project yet, and it’s leaving nothing to chance. The Big Little Theatre School brings new levels of professionalism to its production of the Broadway show Jane Eyre - The Musical Drama with West End directors and state-of-the-art stage effects and set design.

John Caird (Les Miserables) and Paul Gordon’s musical adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s classic tale of passion, tragedy and forgiveness won the show no less than five TONY award nominations on the occasion of its Broadway premier in 2000.

Now, some of the West End stars of tomorrow are bringing Brontë’s Gothic romance to life in one of the first performances to be staged here in the UK.

Directing is Graham Hubbard whose impressive achievements include directing West End productions of Amadeus, Sweeney Todd and Mack and Mabel. “The challenge of producing Jane Eyre - The Musical for Big Little was irresistible,” says Graham. “The company’s talent belies their age, and who better to bring Charlotte Brontë’s classic love story to a new generation than performers from that generation itself."

Musical Director Colin Billing of the London School of Musical Theatre has long been associated with The Big Little Theatre School. His professional credentials include musical direction of Beauty And The Beast, Beggar’s Opera and Creatures of The Night. “Forget everything you ever feared about youth productions," says Colin. “The huge vocal talent and natural acting ability of the cast is more than a match for the moving lyrics and sumptuous musical score.”

Natasha Barnes from Ringwood plays Jane Eyre. Now 17, she has progressed through the ranks of Big Little since the age of 6 and is no stranger to lead performances both amateur and professional. Her credits include the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank, Laurel in The Chalk Garden, Cosette in Les Miserables in Concert with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Hope in her school production of Anything Goes, Marta Von Trapp in The Sound of Music and the title role of Annie in Fastlane’s Touring company for the National Youth Music Theatre.
Natasha is operatically trained by Jon Andrew and works locally with him and the Silhouette Opera supporting local charities.

The part of Rochester is played by John Sandberg from Bournemouth who also has worked through the ranks of BLTS, becoming a prominent member of their ‘Vision’ Cabaret group. John recently performed as the lead, R.P McMurphy in One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and has also received operatic training with Jon Andrew. John also played Seth/Shem as one of the few selected to perform in Children of Eden, the Steven Schwartz Broadway hit as produced and performed by BLTS in 2006.

A total cast of 45 young people, selected through auditions from the 250 strong main company are involved in bringing Jane Eyre – The Musical to the stage, and the production will benefit from 21st Century imagery and sensory set design to create an authentic feel for the period. The set has been designed to transport the audience seamlessly from the cold dormitories of Lowood School, through bleak English moorland, to the interior of a Gothic mansion. Superb costumes reflect the fashions of the 19th century by recreating authentic colours and fabrics from the Brontë era.

Broadway and West End musical theatre pedigree, soaring melodies, imaginative sets and contemporary innovation, lavish costumes, prodigious young talent and a classic love story by one of the most popular English writers of all time. It doesn’t get much better than that.

The Big Little Theatre School’s production of Jane Eyre – The Musical Drama is being staged at the Regent Centre, Christchurch, Dorset from April 11th – 14th. Tickets are available from the Regent Centre box office on 01202 499148.

Julie Barnes

Parsonage Ceilidh

This is the poster for the fundraising ceilidh on 17 March. It is being organised by the Parsonage staff. Please come if you can. If you can't, please remember to raise your glass of whatever you fancy to the Brontës and all their ancestors on the Irish side.

Inspired - a reminder

We've told you about this before. Here it is again in slightly more detail. On Wednesday 7 March 2007 at 7.30pm in the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth, a panel discussion entitled Inspired - The Brontës' Influence will take place.

The Brontës’ influence on writers has persisted through to the present day and this event will bring together a number of established authors who have acknowledged a debt to the Brontës. A panel discussion will be led by Patsy Stoneman and will include;

Stevie Davies: Novelist, literary critic, biographer and historian. Her first novel Boy Blue (1987) won the Fawcett Society Book Prize and Closing the Book (1994) was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Her fifth novel, Four Dreamers and Emily was published in 1996 followed by The Web of Belonging (1997) which was adapted for television by Alan Plater. Her most recent novel Kith and Kin was longlisted for the Orange Prize 2004 and The Eyrie will be published in February 2007. Stevie Davies is Director of Creative Writing at University of Wales, Swansea.

Patricia Duncker: Patricia Duncker’s first novel Hallucinating Foucault (1996), won the Dillons First Fiction Award and the McKitterick Prize. She is the author of two further novels, James Miranda Barry (1999) and The Deadly Space Between (2002) and two collections of short fiction, Monsieur Shoushana’s Lemon Trees (1997) and Seven Tales of Sex and Death (2003). Her most recent novel is Miss Webster and Chérifiss. She is Professor of Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at the University of East Anglia.

Michele Roberts: Michele Roberts is the author of twelve highly praised novels including The Mistressclass (2003) and Reader, I Married Him (2005). She has also published short stories, poetry and essays. She was shortlisted for the 1992 Booker Prize and won the WH Smith Literary Award in 1993. Michele Roberts is a former judge of the Booker Prize and is a regular book reviewer and broadcaster. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Patsy Stoneman: Patsy Stoneman is an Emeritus Reader of the University of Hull. She has published widely on the Brontë novels, including the introduction to the Oxford World’s Classics edition of Wuthering Heights and essays in both the Oxford and Cambridge companions to the Brontës. Her major monograph is Brontë Transformations: the Cultural Dissemination of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. She has recently completed an illustrated edition of eight hitherto unknown Victorian stage plays based on Jane Eyre scheduled to appear in 2007.


Tickets for this event are £6.50 and should be booked in advance. For further details and bookings please contact the Brontë Parsonage Museum, Haworth, 01535 640194/ andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk

John Brown's house

Visiting Haworth? Need a place to stay? The Brontë Spirit blog - www.brontespirit.blogspot.com - has an item which might be of interest to you: John Brown's House, aka The Sexton's House aka Haworth Church Cottage, can now be booked.

Visit the blogsite to find out more.

A poem for Valentine's Day

Visitors' Book

Up to Haworth for the early spring –
As was our brief custom – to see
The snowdrops pester out the winter grief
Of the Parsonage and retrace songlines
In the slab bleak churchyard. A half-starved
Plath, you’d drawn all this in, drinking
Greedily an unworded recognition,
With the thirst of the thwarted, the held-back
And terraced; like the time in El Prado
When I found you weeping before Goya
Unable to say why. I pay my fiver
And go inside. A circus family, really,
In their freakishness; with their tiny
Feet and tiny books. A puff of wind
Could blow them down permanently
And did. You said you felt at home
Here, though you couldn’t say how.
On a table in the hallway, I see it now
And cannot resist the urge of recollection,
Leafing back through the neutral years
Until, sure enough, there they are
Witnessed by a motley decade
Of subsequent strangers: our signatures
In the Visitors Book. The giddy roll
Of my stomach at seeing your hand
Once more, the blinking out of reason
Then the slow, haunted smile to a spring-melt
Of memory. ‘MM’ and ‘MM’: the rapid
Pulse of a small creature short of breath.
You told me on the night of our first
Coupling that I’d be pushed away and
You were as good as your word. But
Before the madness and separation,
Before the Wide Sargasso Sea of your
Dark history opened up between us
An unbridgeable gap, we strode the wild moors
As right and wrong as any lovers.
Later, in the guesthouse, the landlord
Leads me to the same Room 7,
The chipper undertaker of blind ironies.
Our ghosts, aroused, turn to greet me:
A naked threesome splayed and open,
Lashed to the bed of unlinear time
In the room where you were last joyful,
In the space where last we were beautiful.

Martin Malone

A memento for Charles Lemon

A number of tributes to the late Charles Lemon MBE (see blog archive for January) have been made by those who knew him. A display which includes some of them, together with selected photographs, will be put up for Brontë Society members who attend the annual June Weekend in Haworth which begins on Friday 1 June. This one was sent by Maddalena de Leo in Italy:
Charles Lemon – a personal memento


I’ve just heard of Mr Charles Lemon’s death and although I never knew him in person, I would like to bear a personal witness of this wise man whose kindness and culture were evident even through paper.


In Autumn 1980 as a young student at university, my greatest dream was to have an article of mine published in Brontë Society Transactions, as the current Brontë Studies journal was then called. I had been a BS member since 1975 but nobody at Haworth knew me besides Mr Norman Raistrick, the Parsonage custodian, to whom every year I sent money by letter to renew my subscription. Being already interested in Charlotte’s Juvenilia and having read by chance the short tale Albion and Marina – at that time there was no popular edition of her early writings, let alone in Italy – I enthusiastically wrote a short article in English on the topic with my impressions and promptly sent it by mail to the editor, Mr Charles Lemon.


From that day, even if I was an unknown young student, I eagerly waited for an answer from him and surprisingly, after some time it came. In the letter Mr Lemon, who then lived in Bognor Regis, told me he needed to ‘refresh’ his ideas on Albion and Marina to be able to judge my writing so he kindly asked me to wait for a few weeks.


Meanwhile, the southern area of Italy where I then lived was hit by a terrible earthquake on 23 November and all changed around me - what a sad period! Also, John Lennon was shot in New York some twenty days later ….


Mr Lemon’s opinion came, as promised, with his moving concern on that Italian earthquake and I still keep his letter among my most treasured papers, hand-revised by him in many parts and with his own signature at the end. It contained a veiled refusal for the publication of my article but, I dare say, with a so kind and articulated discussion on Albion and Marina that it seemed to me better than an appreciation!




Maddalena De Leo
11th January 2007






















Here’s the complete text of Mr Charles Lemon’s letter:

24 Burnham Avenue
Bognor Regis, West Sussex

19 December 1980

Dear Maddalena De Leo,

Since writing to you on 20th November I have been able to obtain a copy of ‘Albion and Marina’, but before writing on that subject I must express the hope that you have come safely through the dreadful earthquake which recently afflicted your part of Italy.

Having re-read ‘Albion and Marina’ I have been able to appreciate your comments which are both observant and well expressed. It is remarkable what a wealth of knowledge the young Brontës amassed through the teaching received at home (before they went out to school) and through the access they were permitted to the periodicals and newspapers at the Parsonage.

You have drawn attention to the way in which Charlotte in this little piece foreshadows some of the events in her novels – in particular the remarkable message from Rochester to Jane Eyre which travelled simultaneously across so many miles. Some Brontë scholars as you probably know argue that all the materials used in the Brontë novels are to be found in the Juvenilia.

The present story is, as you say, a fragment of Angria, an episode of relative tranquillity – abounding in human tension but at the same time without extremes of violence. This is an interesting point because you will see in this year’s Transactions a poem by Charlotte, hitherto unpublished, written on the back of a letter from Roe Head. The letter was written in 1832 but the poem was probably written when Charlotte was engaged on that part of the story when Zamorna was conquering the country.

The Byronic influence is clear but ‘Albion and Marina’ has other points of interest which would not be apparent to those unfamiliar to England. In particular attention can be drawn to Charlotte’s remarkable achievement, at the age of 14, in describing the country in the south of England, when she had scarcely ever left the limits of her remote village in Yorkshire. The result may not be entirely accurate but it reads very well! One is also entertained by the rapid transformation of the Duke of Strathelleraye’s residence from a ‘magnificent villa’ to a palace and then to a castle, all within the space of a few pages.

The difference of rank between the Duke and Sir Alured Angus is probably exaggerated by Charlotte. Both are gentlemen of title and the physician to a Duke is clearly someone highly placed in his profession who would have a number of equally important patients. His daughter therefore would have some claim to a place in society and her outstanding beauty would support such a claim.

I hope you will enjoy reading Transactions. With best wishes for the New Year,

Yours sincerely,

Charles Lemon

Meeting in Milan

In Italy and reading this? Why not meet some of our Italian members on 24 February? You would be more than welcome!

Inspired - The Brontës' Influence

On Wednesday 7 March at 7.30pm, a panel discusssion will take place at the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth which will include Stevie Davies, Patricia Duncker and Michele Roberts. In the chair will be Patsy Stoneman.

All of these authors will acknowledge a debt to the Brontës. Tickets are £6.50. They are available from andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk, phone 01535 640194.

Below - Patricia Duncker, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Visit to the Foundling Hospital

The painting is Moses Brought Before Pharaoh’s Daughter by William Hogarth, which is in the care of the Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square, London. This will be visited by Brontë Society members (and non-members, so consider yourself invited) on Sunday 4 February.

Meet at 12 noon outside Russell Square Tube Station - which is on the Piccadilly Line. Admission to the Museum is £5.

Ann Simmonds pointed out the reference to the Foundling Hospital in Stephen Whitehead's book The Brontës' Haworth -

James Grenwood employed sixty hands at Bridgehouse in 1833, half of them under sixteen and some as young as ten. This was an advance on conditions thirty years earlier, when james Greenwood's cousin John at Vale Mill, half a mile downstream from Bridgehouse, was employing orphaned girls from as young as five, assigned to him from the Foundling Hospital in London.

Another London event for Society members and anyone else who wants to join in - Tea and Chat at the Barbican on Sunday 11 March. Meet at 12 noon at the Waterside Café for tea and Brontë chat about Jane Eyre.

Coming soon

The Parsonage is closed to the public at the moment, as usual at this time of year, but there is plenty going on. In the picture, Librarian Ann Dinsdale and Curator Polly Salter are seen dealing with one of many seasonal tasks.


On Thursday 1 February, a new, special exhibition will open to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Mrs Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë. The exhibition, which is free on admission to the museum, has the same title.

Charles Lemon MBE 1914 - 2007

The following is from a recent news release sent to the local and national press:

The Brontë Society has sent its condolences to the family of Charles Lemon MBE, who died on the morning of 4 January. His funeral is at St Anne’s Catholic church in Keighley at 12pm on Friday 12 January.

Charles Lemon joined the Brontë Society in 1936 after having cycled to Haworth (from London) the previous year. He was a very active member, elected to the Society’s council several times and serving as chairman. He was the editor of Transactions (the Society’s academic journal) from 1964 – 1983 and served on the editorial board of Brontë Studies, the journal which replaced it, until the day he died.

As Bibliographical Secretary (a post which no longer exists) he frequently attended auctions on behalf of the Parsonage, helping in the purchasing of letters and other Brontë memorabilia.

His publications include :

A Leaf from an Unopened Volume by Charlotte Brontë (1986) (new transcription, edited by Charles Lemon)

A Centenary History of the Brontë Society

Early Visitors to Haworth (1996)

Classics of Brontë Scholarship (1999) (selected and introduced by Charles Lemon)

In the foreword to A Centenary History of the Brontë Society, the famous historian and past President of the Brontë Society Asa Briggs (born in Keighley in 1921) wrote, “The Brontë Society has a long and fascinating history and no one is better suited to write it than Charles Lemon, who has played an active part in the story.”

Current Chairman of the Brontë Society Richard Wilcocks commented, “ With the death of Charles Lemon we have lost an extraordinary member.

“Through his efforts and imagination he set an example for us all. He is one of the reasons the Brontë Society has survived and flourished since its founding in 1893, longer than most other literary societies.”

Previous Chairman Bob Barnard said, “He was a gentle, scholarly man, enormously well-read, who came over the years to represent all that is best in the Society”.

When he spoke to younger members of his family he remembered that as a young child in London he was held by his mother during bombing raids - by Zeppelins. He also recalled the return of his father from the Great War: he had been fighting in France and in Italy.

He attended Davidson Road Junior School, which a few years earlier (1908 - 1911) had boasted D H Lawrence on its staff. Later, at Selhurst Grammar, where he first discovered Jane Eyre, he particulary loved History, Latin and English, and would undoubtedly have had a distinguished university career had his parents' finances permitted - but he left to take a job at the age of sixteen.

A full obituary will appear in the next issue of Brontë Society Gazette.

Best Wishes!

Best wishes for the New Year to all who have contributed to, given advice for or passed comment on this blog during its first year of existence!

Friends

The Friends of the Brontë Society is the name of a group just formed at the Parsonage, made up of staff members. It will be concerned with raising money for the recently-finalised Forward Plan, intended to take the Society and the Parsonage into the Twenty First Century.

Fundraising will be one of the principal concerns of the Society in 2007: plans for a new centre for visitors have been in existence for a long time, needing only a massive injection of funds to make them come true. More immediate plans for an ambitious programme to further establish the Parsonage as a vibrant creative centre for the arts as well as a world centre for Brontë Studies will also need adequate financial backing, of course.

The Friends coordinator is Pat Berry. First event is a ceilidh to be held in Haworth on St Patrick's Day in March. More details nearer the date.

Ann on the radio

Parsonage Librarian Ann Dinsdale is on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow (Thursday 16 November) at 1.30pm. The following is an extract from the Open Country preview page -

Most of us know the Upper Worth Valley because of the work of a remarkable family – Charlotte, Anne and Emily – better known as the Brontës. Their novels and poetry has helped shaped people’s ideas of what this valley was like, and has drawn people to The Old Parsonage Museum where the family lived in Haworth. Richard chats with Ann Dinsdale, the museum’s librarian, who’s just published a book about the family called “The Brontës at Haworth.”

Next, Richard climbs to the top of a ridge to get an overview of the Upper Worth Valley with topographer Reg Hindley. Geology, poltics, economics and social upheaval had all had an effect on the look of the valley. According to Reg, each colour on the patchwork quilt of farms and moorland that can be seen is the result of some sort of change. And the landscape is still changing today.

You can read the rest on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/opencountry.shtml

Brontë moon crater

Thanks to Paul Daniggelis in El Paso, Texas for sending us (and many others) the following link for the Brontë Crater on the Moon.


www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/mapcatalog/LPST/43d1s2


Thanks are also due to Jennifer Blue at the United States Geological Survey in Flagstaff Arizona, who was responsible for locating the photographic file.


The crater was named for Charlotte by Harrison Schmitt, Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 17 Lunar excursion. Paul Daniggelis's article in Brontë Society Gazette 22 (April 2000) covers this event and quotes from Chapter 24 of Jane Eyre:


Fire rises out of the lunar mountains: when she is cold, I'll carry her up to a peak, and lay her down on the edge of a crater.

Genealogy and W S Williams

Norman E Penty writes:


The Discovery of Charlotte Brontë


by William Smith Williams (1800-1875)




Charlotte Brontë may have remained in obscurity if it had not been for the faith, foresight and fortitude of William Smith Williams, the literary editor of Smith Elder who first recognised her talent when, using the pseudonym Currer Bell, and after a number of rejections, she forlornly sent them a copy of The Professor. Even though this manuscript was initially rejected it was done in such a positive and encouraging manner that Charlotte shortly sent Williams a draft of Jane Eyre which was soon published to great acclaim.


Little has hitherto been known of Williams and the background of this unassuming and quiet man. Most of what we know about Williams' character has been gleaned from the large volume of letters written to him by Charlotte. Unfortunately, most of those written by him to her have disappeared. However, the extant correspondence shows that Charlotte not only leant on Williams for support and advice, using him as her mentor, but that it was a two-way affair inasmuch she keenly offered him advice on the care and education of his children, drawing on her own experience as governess and teacher. Their friendship was not just confined to a professional relationship, but one which spilled over into their personal lives when on several occasions Charlotte visited the Williams' home and was entertained by his family and friends.


My research into discovering more about this fascinating man concentrated on parish records, census returns, and wills, etc., all of which enabled me to trace the origins of his family back to 1690 in Oxfordshire; his birth in the parish of St Martin-in-the- Fields; his marriage at Broxbourne, Herts; the births of his eight children and what happened to them; and finally his death and burial at Kensal Green. My quest identified his apprenticeship with the Fleet Street publishers, Taylor & Hessey, where he was in the small party bidding a final farewell to John Keats as he left for Rome and immortality; his subsequent miserable existence as a bookkeeper, which he disliked and which encouraged him to supplement his income by writing literary articles in his leisure time and then his eventual employment as literary editor at Smith Elder.


At Smith Elder he was held in high esteem, not only by his employer and colleagues but by many literary luminaries such as Thackeray, the Leigh Hunts, Hazlitt and Mrs Gaskell. It was commented that he “cherished from boyhood a genuine love of literature and received much kindly notice from eminent writers” and that “he was by nature too modest to gain any wide recognition”.


Although it appears Williams was a close family man, a modest man, about whom no misdemeanour can be found, he was very tolerant of the more colourful characters with whom he associated and became his friends including George Henry Lewes and his wife Agnes, Thornton Hunt and George Eliot, all of whom scandalised Victorian society with their so-called progressive views on marriage.


Besides his greatest legacy in ensuring that the name and talents of Charlotte Bronte became universally recognised, his children and their descendants became highly regarded as singers, musicians, artists, lawyers and accountants both in the UK and overseas.


The above titled forty five-page booklet can be viewed at The Parsonage Museum or at The Society of Genealogists, London.










Photo of W S Williams

The Brontës at Haworth by Ann Dinsdale

Parsonage Librarian Ann Dinsdale spoke to Richard Wilcocks about her just-published book The Brontës at Haworth:


The book came about because Anne Fraser from the publisher Frances Lincoln saw the Parsonage Guide in the summer of 2004, which I had co-authored. She was so impressed with its general quality that she contacted me and Simon Warner and we took it from there.

The title? Simple and straightforward, I think. Lincoln wanted something a little more highfalutin, but I didn’t feel comfortable with their suggestions. It has such a strong focus on Haworth, so the name had to be in it. It’s simple but it sums it all up.

For research I didn’t have to stir beyond the library here, which of course contains the best collection of Brontë material in the world. I had access to parish records, contemporary accounts, newspapers, everything. After seventeen years I am quite familiar with what there is.

The people who have commented so far have been complimentary - for example Jane Sellars read the Art section and Steve Wood read the parts on social conditions in Haworth. My colleague Steve Whitehead told me he was impressed by the book’s range.

After all my time here dealing with visiting researchers I have got an idea of what people want to know, so I have tried to address relevant concerns. There are no footnotes because the book is not aimed merely at a university audience.

I am very happy with the wonderful photos by Simon Warner, which complement the text so well.

Some new or little-known items might stick in the reader’s mind, for example some of the contemporary views of the Brontë novels. One reviewer said that Wuthering Heights would ‘live a short and brilliant life and then die and be quickly forgotten’.

Then there’s the transcript of the account book of the local joiner William Wood, a good name for a joiner I think. He made coffins. His spelling gives an idea of how he spoke.

When ‘Miss Branwell’ died in 1842, her ‘coffen’ cost £5.12s.6d. When Branwell died in 1848 the ‘coffen & scroud making’ totalled only £3.15s. Then there is this:

Emlea Jane Bronty. Died Dec 19th 1848 in the 30 year of hir Age. Coffen 5ft 7” long 16” broad.

The Brontës at Haworth by Ann Dinsdale, with photographs by Simon Warner, is published by Frances Lincoln. ISBN 0711225729


To purchase it, contact the Parsonage shop using the link on the right.


Photo - Ann Dinsdale in the Parsonage Library

Kate Bush and 'Kateness'

Some years ago now, the excellent Kate Bush put Wuthering Heights on the map for many people. A group of her fans slogged up to Top Withins last Sunday (28 October) on the HomeGround Wuthering Hike. Thanks to Peter, Co-editor of HomeGround the Kate Bush Magazine for telling us about it!

Predictably, they were very wet and very happy when they returned: “If anyone ever feels they want to attend one of these bashes don't let anything stop you, you won't regret it. I nearly killed myself doing the hike but by the time we got to the top I was very wet and laughing like I have never laughed in years,” said one of them on the pages of the Kate Bush News and Info Forum, adding, “Being immersed in 'Kateness' is so good for the soul”.

Most of the walkers appear to have ended up supping ale in the back room of the Black Bull in Haworth, a fitting end for a great day out.


This photo is of Tracy at the Brontë Falls:

Last month's conference

Last month (22 September - 24 September) The Brontës and their Background - a weekend conference - took place in the Baptist Centre in West Lane, Haworth.

Speakers were Stephen Whitehead (The Haworth the Brontës knew), main organiser Bob Duckett (Where did the Brontës get their books?), Ian Emberson ("The likeness of a kingly crown": John Milton and his influence on Charlotte), Yukari Oda (Wuthering Heights and the Waverley novels: Scott's influence on Emily), Elizabeth Leaver (Why Anne Brontë wrote as she did), Brian Wilks (Charlotte Brontë and the two churches) and Ian Dewhirst (The Real Haworth: Myths and Anecdotes)

Ian Dewhirst was the speaker at the Conference Dinner in The White Lion in Haworth.

Tom Winnifrith was in hospital so unfortunately could not contribute. Instead, a forum took place in his time slot, chaired by Robert Barnard.

One of the delegates was Marcia Zaaijer, who is an archivist from Rotterdam in the Netherlands: she recently sent the post below. Conference papers will probably not be published as a booklet (Brontë Society Council is economising) but should be available on request from Bob Duckett as photocopies. Contact him through this blog - email hevelius@poriruacity.com

A brief impression of the Bronte Weekend Conference 2006:


Every speaker impressed me with something to do or to remember. So many details of life in the Brontës’ Haworth, that both Steven Whitbread and Ian Dewhurst were able to present! Ian Dewhurst spoke in the kind of language, that in my Dutch imagination I like to think sounds like the language the Brontës heard around them.

And all those books they read, without a library next door, while I still have not read any more Walter Scott than Ivanhoe and Kenilworth. Of The Pilgrim's Progress and Paradise Lost I have nothing more than a vague notion that there was also a Paradise to be Regained, but this has more to do with me preferring happy endings than with any knowledge of English literature.

Really, maybe I should go and attend school in South Africa: I love the way Elisabeth Leaver championed Anne and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. With a bit of luck some Afrikaners might understand my Dutch.

The nicest surprise for me as an archivist was on Sunday morning. Brian Wilks realised, or someone made him realise, that the Bishop of Ripon, who visited Mr. Brontë in the parsonage in Haworth when Charlotte was Patrick's only surviving child and already a celebrated authoress, went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury. Obviously this means that his archives are kept at Lambeth Palace, and that in his archives are notes about his visit to Mr Brontë, which reveal that Charlotte was a good hostess to him. We know about the bishop's visit, because Charlotte writes about it in a letter. Now we get the story from the visitor, someone who actually stayed at the Parsonage. Two trustworthy historical sources which tell of the same meeting: that's a bonus for an archivist.


In the first photo below, taken during the forum, from the left Stephen Whitehead, Brian Wilks, Robert Barnard, Elizabeth Leaver, Ian Emberson. In the other photo, Ian Dewhirst holds forth.