Brussels Brontë Weekend 18-20 April

Helen MacEwan writes:

It's been a long cold winter in Brussels but the sun finally came out in time for our guided walk around Brontë places, led by Derek Blyth, during the second spring weekend of events organised by the recently-formed Brussels branch to mark Charlotte Brontë's birthday.

This year Robert Barnard joined us from Leeds in the UK to take part in a meeting with writers in Waterstone's and also in the all-day conference on Les Soeurs Brontë à Bruxelles organised by a public library, which to our surprise was inaugurated by the Mayor of Brussels, who switched effortlessly between French, Dutch and English.

Eric Ruijssenaars and Maureen Peeck O'Toole, who also spoke at the weekend's events, joined us too, together with other members from the Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic.

For some gourmets the high point of the weekend was a Victorian dinner arranged by the conference organisers to round off a long day.

Pictured below:

Place du Musée near Chapelle Royale, Protestant church where Charlotte and Emily worshipped.

The guided walk, with Derek Blyth

Writers in Waterstones – with Robert Barnard

The Mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, inaugurating the Bronte conference organised by one of the main Brussels public libraries.

Eric Ruijssenaars speaking at the conference - with photo of Belliard steps down to rue Isabelle and the Pensionnat Heger

See link to Brussels group on the right.

Behind the scenes tours

Director Alan Bentley writes:

There will soon be chances to see behind the scenes at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, by taking advantage of a new 'special tour' scheme.

The first two will take place on 3 May and 24 May, with more dates to be announced shortly.

Get a new view of the story of the Brontë Family! Your guide will try to give you a special insight into the lives of the Brontës, and an understanding of why they still inspire people today.

The tour will culminate in a visit to the Parsonage Library, with a chance to view at close quarters a selection of items from the Brontë Society’s collections

Tours are restricted to a maximum of twelve people.

9.45 - meet your guide for a short introduction to the house and the surrounding features

10.00 - tour of the house with your guide

11.15 - visit to the Library and opportunity to view selected items from the collection.

11.45 - end of tour and your opportunity to go back to view the house at your leisure or visit the exhibition in the Old School Room opposite the Museum.

All this is being offered for the special introductory price of £12.95 per head. Unfortunately we are not able to offer reductions for children or concessions. There will be a minimum number on each tour of six people.

Pre-booking is essential. Call 01535 642323 to do it!

Jane Eyre "progressing well"

Classical Comics reports that Jane Eyre is progressing well. Sample pages can be seen below. Click on an image to enlarge it.

These are described as "still rough in terms of lettering" ........judge for yourself.

There is the possibility of a display at the Parsonage at the end of the year or in early 2009.

The company welcomes your comments, of course.

A little piece of history

There has been a rush to get hold of a slice of a tree said to be planted by Charlotte Brontë as part of her wedding celebrations in 1854. The tree unfortunately had to be felled in January as it had become unsafe.

The trunk is to be made into a sculpture but a limited amount of the wood from the smaller branches has been sliced up and packaged as a limited edition souvenir.

Members have been asked to donate money to the Brontë Society’s conservation fund in return for the package of history and have responded remarkably: in just over a week a thousand pounds has been raised to support the care and conservation of the Society’s collection of Brontë objects.

The limited edition packs have been offered initially to members of the Brontë Society in return for a donation of five pounds or more to the charity. Donations have been flooding in from around the world and include one donation of a hundred pounds.

The Brontës may have been surprised by the interest but they may have understood it. Charlotte was given a fragment of Napoleon’s coffin by her teacher while studying in Brussels. The small piece of wood is now in the Museum collection.

Mr William Callaghan - a Brontë Society member from Oxenhope - was the first to receive his slice of history from Alan Bentley, Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The two men are pictured below.

When it was clear that the tree was sick the Brontë Society had sapling grown from seeds from the Cyprus Pine, and one of these has been planted in the Parsonage garden to replace the original tree.

BBC Radio 4 and the Brontës

A reminder from Parsonage Director Alan Bentley:

Today at 2.15pm BST -

Afternoon Play - I Believe I Have Genius

This play by Judith Adams (who was Education Officer at the Parsonage a few years ago) is based on the writings and letters of Charlotte Brontë, describing her experiences when she travelled to Brussels, as humble and obscure as the heroines of her later novels.

This should be available to listen to on the BBC website (Listen Again) for the next seven days.

Tomorrow

On Friday 18 April at 15:00 BST

Ramblings - Clare Balding explores routes with connections to the past.

She strides out across the moors behind Haworth in the footsteps of the Brontës with Ann Dinsdale and Judith Bland. They intend to walk to Top Withins, thought to be the inspiration for Wuthering Heights, but they wander a little off course and in doing so forge a much stronger connection to the famous sisters.

Available online at the BBC's Listen Again.

Brontë Exhibition in Brussels

Helen MacEwan writes:

One of the main Brussels public libraries, Bibliothèque Riches Claires, has organised an excellent exhibition on Charlotte and Emily Brontë's stay in Brussels in 1842-43. This is an initiative of the chief librarian, who had the idea after reading Brontë Society member Eric Ruijssenaars' books on this subject.

The library, with assistance from the Brussels Brontë Group, is also organising a conference on Saturday 19 April with six speakers including Robert Barnard and a member of the Heger family.

The organisers agreed to time the exhibition and conference to coincide with the Brussels Brontë Group's annual weekend of events.

This is an opportunity to see a lot of interesting pictures, photos and books on Brussels in the period of the Brontës' stay and to find out more about the Quartier Isabelle and the Pensionnat Heger. There is also plenty of material on the Brontë and Heger families, and a display of Brontë novels and biographies in French from Brussels libraries with Wuthering Heights translated in at least seven different ways!

Exhibition Les Soeurs Brontë à Bruxelles, Bibliothèque des Riches Claires, rue Riches Claires 24, 1000 Brussels, from 10 to 29 April 2008. Exhibition opening hours: Monday to Friday 13.00 to 17.00; Saturday (except for 19 April): 10.00 to 12.00

Details of the conference on 19 April and of the other events taking place can be found on the Brussels Brontë Group website

Facebook Brontë

Alan Bentley, Director of the Parsonage Museum, writes:

Why not join the Facebook Brontë group?

There are now fifty-four members. The link to the site is here. Of course, you will have to join Facebook.

We are also looking at setting up a Myspace page and are about to tender for a revamp of the main website - www.Bronte.info

Brontë in Chicago

Remy Bumppo Theatre Company presents the American premiere of Brontë, 20 March to 4 May at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theatre, 2257 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago , IL 60614 .

Brontë Parsonage Blog readers are invited to take advantage of a special half price ticket offer for any Friday performance. Contact the company (see below)

This is from the publicity:

How is it possible that three Victorian spinsters, living in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, could have written some of the most powerful and passionate fiction of all time? Polly Teale's inventive drama - directed by James Bohnen - examines the lives of three of the most studied and discussed writers of all time.

Spurred by their brother's tumultuous personal life, Charlotte , Emily and Anne Brontë write from their remote home on the Yorkshire moors. Brontë evokes both the real and fantasy worlds of the Brontës, as the sisters' austere surroundings give way to the boundless power of imagination.

Contact Remy Bumppo

Tomorrow, 5 April, members of the Region 5 American chapter will attend a performance. You might still have time to join the party, in which case please contact the Region 5 representative, Dr Margot Peters at margot.peters@charter.net

Below, production shot of Heathcliff and Cathy:

April in Brussels

For information on the forthcoming Brussels Brontë Weekend (18 to 20 April) please scroll down a little and click on the link on the right for the Brussels group. All you need to know is there.

The Brontës: Revisiting Inner Space

This one-day conference is on 28 March, organised by l'Université Toulouse II-le Mirail, France (see previous post), with Catherine Lanone, Laurence Talairach-Vielmas and Charlotte Borie as directors.

This is the conference's introductory statement:

Much has been said about the way in which Charlotte and Emily Brontë transposed the Gothic sense of enclosure and located alienation within the domestic constraints imposed upon women. This colloquium aims to study the ways in which the sisters negotiate the boundaries of self and society and (re)locate or conceal intimacy, especially through the tropes of sincerity and theatricality.

Interest may range from the way in which they create a visual world of their own in the juvenilia, pictures, poems, letters or novels— not to mention the essays written in Belgium, which obey and challenge the constraints of form and language.

Particular attention may be paid to the function of embedded pictures or theatrical moments within the novels, reflecting or challenging the way in which the narrative voice represents the self. The dialectical play on mask and revelation may be connected with wider cultural debates and issues, possibly focusing on the way in which the private self may be exposed through
transpositions, from the Victorian performances of Jane Eyre on stage discussed by Patsy Stoneman to twentieth-century rewritings.

Daphne

On Friday 18 April
 at 7.30pm, at the Parsonage, Justine Picardie will be reading from her new novel Daphne
 and discussing the Brontës and Daphne Du Maurier with Du Maurier's
 eldest daughter Lady Tessa Montgomery.

This event includes champagne
and canapes and a special opportunity to view rarely seen Branwell
 Brontë manuscripts once owned by Du Maurier. £10 - Tickets in advance (£10) from jenna.holmes@ bronte.org. uk/




See Kazam Media News

Conference in Toulouse

Charlotte Borie writes:

At the University of Toulouse, we have created a website to promote a one-day conference on 28 March.

We invite everyone to take a look at it here.

Kosminsky's Wuthering Heights

Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 adaptation of Wuthering Heights stars Sinead O’Connor as Emily Brontë and Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as Heathcliff and Cathy. It will be shown at 7.45pm at the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth on Friday 28 March

With a screenplay by Anne Devlin, Kosminsky’s is the first film adaptation to include the whole of the story. The film has spectacular cinematography by Mike Southon, a wonderful musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and the dubious distinction of having been spoofed in the Simpsons: Kamp Krusty.

Tickets are £5/ £3 (under 16s) and should be booked in advance from
jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk - .

Resurgam

Jenna Holmes writes:

Resurgam is the title of an exhibition of paintings, inspired by the Brontës, by artist Bob Littleford, which opened last weekend and will continue until 19 April.

A self-taught artist, Bob Littleford was born in Oldham in 1945 and worked riveting door handles and as a dustman before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. He began producing paintings inspired by the Brontës after hearing Bernard Herrmann’s opera adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Resurgam is an exhibition of new work based on his response to the Brontës' lives and works.

This exhibition is free on admission to the museum.

Below, I flew as in a dream and Last Lines:

Wild at the Parsonage

Parsonage Director Alan Bentley showed a party of six film-makers around last week, all of them connected with Brontë - the movie - which will start filming in May and which is directed by Charles Sturridge.

Amongst them was Nick Wild, managing director of Film Squared, the production company based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.

"The party was given a pretty comprehensive guided tour," Alan told the blog. "They were taken behind the scenes and looked at every detail.

They were particularly interested in the current exhibition - No Coward Soul.

It is still unlikely that the film will include shots of the Parsonage, but Nick Wild is talking about using Haworth.

We are now expecting visits from the principals: Natalie Press is coming soon....."

Brontë is being backed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment production company and was quite a topic of conversation at the recent Berlin Film Festival.

Below, Natalie Press (to play Charlotte) in a scene from the TV production of Bleak House:

Ceilidh on 15 March

Pat Berry, Chairman of The Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, writes:

After the success of last years St Patrick's Day Ceilidh, the Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum will again be celebrating the event. This year the ceilidh will be held in The School Room, Church Street, Haworth where Patrick Brontë himself started a Sunday School and Charlotte Brontë taught.

The ceilidh is on Saturday 15 March from 7.30pm until 11pm - and once again the music will be provided by popular band Northern Comfort. There will be a licensed bar and the ticket price includes a pie and peas supper.

Tickets are available from the Museum Shop or by ringing and cost £8.50 for adults and £3.50 for children. Why not come along and have a great night out and support the work of the Museum at the same time?

Bob Barnard in Headingley

The first ever Headingley LitFest takes place soon, beginning on Wednesday 12 March with an illustrated talk by Nicolette Jones, who is not only the children's book reviewer for The Sunday Times, but the author of a biography of the Victorian philanthropist Samuel Plimsoll and his campaign on behalf of sailors The Plimsoll Sensation (Little, Brown) which was published in 2006. The name of the book is the name of the talk, which will be delivered in Headingley library at 7pm on Wednesday 12 March.

Saturday events in the LitFest include Tea with the Brontës - which will begin at 4pm in the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. The audience will be able to sip tea and consume cakes, listening at the same time to a talk by Bob Barnard entitled People the Brontës Knew, based on A Brontë Encyclopedia by Bob and Louise Barnard (Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-4051-5119-1) which was published in July 2007.

Headingley is part of Leeds, a city about twenty miles from Haworth. Headingley is well-known for its stadium (cricket and rugby) but not so well-known for its literary connections: Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons) was born there, before being sent to school in the Lake District, Alan Bennett (History Boys) lived over his father's butcher's shop there, J R R Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), who before Oxford was a professor at Leeds University, had a terrace house on the Otley Road and Kay Mellor (Ring of Gold, television version of Jane Eyre) lives there today.

For full details, go the Headingley LitFest.

For tickets to any events, ring 0113 2786948 or 0113 2756652

Patrick Brontë - Father of Genius

Dudley Green's biography, published by The History Press , should appear in May this year, priced at £20. ISBN: 978 1 84588 625 7

This is from the publisher:

Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters,’ Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England’s greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe.

Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.

Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.

This is the first serious biography of Patrick Brontë for more than forty years.

New exhibition opens

News release:

No Coward Soul is the new and special exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum celebrating the life and work of Emily Jane Brontë.

For the very first time members of the public are invited to come and view our entire collection of objects and artefacts associated with the world famous Brontë sister and author of Wuthering Heights.

The exhibition guides our visitors through the most significant aspects of Emily’s life: her childhood, her love for animals, her writing, and how she felt about spending time away from her home here at the Parsonage.

We have chosen to display some very special and rare objects belonging to Emily to accompany the information about her life.

We hope that visitors to this unique Emily exhibition will gain a deeper insight into the life and soul behind the legend.

The Brontë Parsonage Museum is open seven days a week.

Please contact the museum on 01535 642323 for information on opening times and entry charges or Ann Dinsdale - Collections Manager on 01535 640198, for information on the No Coward Soul exhibition 2008.

Restoration work begins on Brontë piano

Sarah Laycock from the Parsonage writes:

After over a hundred years build-up of dust, dirt and strands of Emily’s hair, the Brontë family piano is finally going to be restored to full working order. The only problem we have now is - who’s going to play it?

Up until now, the cabinet piano, presented to the museum in 1916, has been displayed and admired as a piece of authentic Brontë furniture but with the help of private funding, we are now able to restore the inside mechanism so that it can be appreciated by all as a musical instrument.

The piano was mainly used by Emily, although Branwell and Anne would have also used it to a lesser extent. Ellen Nussey once described Emily playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’ and by the time Emily went to Brussels in 1842, her playing was of such a high standard that she was taught by one of the best music professors in Belgium.

The piano was probably made in London between 1810 and 1815. It bears the inscription John Green, music agent of 33 Soho Square, London. It has a fairly short five octave keyboard of ivory keys which will be kept intact, and the broken hammers and strings which are hidden behind a screen of maroon-coloured pleated silk will be replaced so that the piano will play for the first time in over one hundred years.

Piano restorer Ken Forrest (pictured below) has examined the piano and informed us that there are parts missing which will need to be replaced and it will need to be completely restrung. He also said that the ivory keys are going to be kept but are in need of some renovation. He is going to be researching similar pianos in order to gather together more information before restoration can take place. Cabinet pianos were popular in the 1830s and 1840s but today are rather unusual when compared to the more valuable pianos such as the Grand.

Our cabinet piano is one of many items that were auctioned off in the 1861 sale of Brontë objects. It was bought by a Mr Booth of Oxenhope and sold many times before it was donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 1916.