BBC News features some of the things that you can catch in the coming days at the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton. The birthplace of world-famous literary sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë is to open to the public, alongside a walking tour and ...
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"BrontëBlog" - 5 new articles

  1. Pretentious? Just a bit
  2. Love Across Borders
  3. Run, Jane, run!
  4. More Myself than I Am at the Edinburgh Fringe
  5. Imaginative and Supernatural
  6. More Recent Articles

Pretentious? Just a bit

BBC News features some of the things that you can catch in the coming days at the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton.
The birthplace of world-famous literary sisters Charlotte, Anne and Emily Brontë is to open to the public, alongside a walking tour and exhibition.
The Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, Bradford, will be free to visitors on 13 September as part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme.
An exhibition at the home on Market Road will explore the history of the building, and what happened after the literary sisters left their birthplace in Thornton to move to the Haworth Parsonage in 1820.
There will also be a free walking tour of Thornton on 19 September to share the "forgotten chapter in the Brontë story", according to the Brontë Birthplace.
Vice Chair of the Brontë Birthplace Thomas Haigh said the building "enjoyed a rich history" after the family's departure.
"We want to share this 200-year story with our visitors as well as showcase the challenges, discoveries and community effort behind the restoration and how this remarkable building continues to evolve and serve a new generation of visitors," he said.
The exhibition will feature photographs, building plans and residents' memories of their time in the house, which has also been a butcher's shop and cafe.
Led by local historian Paul Crossley, the two-hour tour will begin at the Brontë Birthplace and includes the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Kipping House and South Square Centre.
Heritage Open Days is England's largest festival of history and culture which takes place annually in September. (Grace Wood)
Some sites are still reviewing Charli XCX's performance at Reading Festival. From Billboard:
and “Dying for You” and “House” from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack went even further in summoning a brooding, intense atmosphere. Not what you expect from a festival headliner, but certainly not unwelcome, either. (Thomas Smith)
featuring three totemic males of music, fashion and film: John Cale (whose disembodied voice heralds a tense rendition of their claustrophobic duet, House), Marc Jacobs and Martin Scorsese. Pretentious? Just a bit. But Nietzsche, I reckon, would have got on board with it – Charli’s current pop era is basically a cosmic battle between her ego and her vulnerabilities, all watched over by serious Big Dick Energy. (Chal Ravens)
From NME:
The set really comes alive after ‘House’, when John Cale’s recorded voice booms out of the PA over black screens, before Charli re-enters the fray for her part of the Wuthering Heights song, crawling across one of the platforms as lights flash artfully around her. As sparks fall from the roof and fire bursts up in the background, it passes the baton to ‘Dying For You’, that soundtrack album’s far poppier cut, before she leans into ‘Brat’ with a megamix that ends with underwear shooting into the sky at the end of ‘Guess’. (Rhian Daly)
   

Love Across Borders

A recent talk at the 5th International Congress of Language and Translation Studies:
by Özlem Recebli̇
Proceedings of the 5th International Congress of Language and Translation Studies
(Selçuk University in Konya, Turkey, alongside the Azerbaijan University of Languages
September 24–26, 2025), pp 626

Wide Sargasso Sea, written by Jean Rhys in 1966. It is the rewriting of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The main character Antoinette grows up in a troubled environment marked by racial tensions and the aftermath of slavery. She and her family struggle with financial instability and social isolation. Also, Antoinette feels increasingly alienated from both the black and white communities around her. After her father’s death she and her mother Annette eventually marry foreign men. However, their relationships become strained due to cultural misunderstandings, and the reader sees kind a madwoman in the attic figure. In this context, this paper aims to analyse main character’s mother Annette's and main character Antoinette's change before and after their marriages to their husbands in the context of how migration, race, and class influence notions of love and emotions in the light of Chandra Talpade Mohanty’s ideas, particularly her critique of the homogenization of “Third World women” and the “Western feminist gaze”. The analysis will also explore the novel through the lens of the politics of location using the Caren Kaplan’s and Adrianne Rich’s ideas. Also, the paper aims to address the themes of madness, loneliness and migration interpreting Antoinette’s and Annette’s mental decline as a result of intersectional forces such as race, gender, class, and colonial displacement, echoing the insights of scholars like
Eleanor Wilkinson and Denise Brennan. By examining how migration, race, and class influence notions of love and emotions, this paper underscores the importance of amplifying marginalized voices, regardless of the often painful or unjust conclusions of their stories.
   

Run, Jane, run!

Theatre and Tonic gives 3 stars to Jane Eyre Convention at Just the Tonic at the Mash House.
More or less a reenactment of the Brontë novel, the piece focuses on four fans, well, three and a woman dropped off by her boyfriend because she has the same name as the protagonist, even if spelt differently. As they act out Jane Eyre, they learn about how the book is viewed today, but also its influences on their lives. The cast gel well together, never overshadowing each other and having their distinguishable personalities. But it does have to be said that Eleanor Zeal and Ben Everett Riley stand out as a true highlight, at times almost squabbling to the extent of mother and son.
There isn’t much substance to the piece outside of Jane Eyre, we learn little things here and there but never overtakes the performance of the book. I didn’t really know anything about Jane Eyre going into this show and felt like it was explained well without ever going into high school English territory. The piece might have benefitted by a little more physicality or bringing some more comedy, as there were jokes here and there but I  did struggle to tell if people were laughing or not.
Jane Eyre Convention is an exciting way to learn the story written by Charlotte Brontë without ever diverging off into other plots. You will leave wanting to dawn a bonnet and run through the moors, before heading home for shortbread and a cup of Yorkshire tea. (Kerry)
Still on stage, Londonist recommends Jane Eyre the Musical.
Catch the UK premiere of a musical adaptation of  Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, at Southwark Playhouse Elephant. We're promised the chance to "see Jane, the first feminist literary icon, like you never have before" accompanied by a powerful musical score. 28 August-24 October 2026
London Theatre interviews Jonathan Andrew Hume, who plays both Mr Brocklehurst and Mr Mason.
Who do you play in Jane Eyre?
I play two roles in the show: Brocklehurst, who is head of the school that young Jane [attends], as she leaves her home and begins her journey. He shapes the structure that society is asking young Jane to conform to, which later in the show she gets to break away from. He’s this towering inferno of a person. I also play Mason, who is Rochester’s friend and the brother of someone who I’m not going to mention now, as I don’t want to give away any spoilers! When we first meet him, he seems to be this nice, jovial soul, but later in the show he has a moment that shakes things up completely. I’m looking forward to that moment, and I think [writer] John Caird might actually have to keep a lid on some of the drama that I want to put into it!
Why do you think the novel works as a musical?
Jane is the protagonist but also the narrator of the piece. The ensemble, as well as Charlie [Burn, who plays adult Jane], are all the voice of Jane Eyre. So there are parts where the narrative is told by myself, or by somebody else. It really gets the audience to sit in as the character of Jane and go on that journey with her. The book is written from Jane’s point of view, so we can all be Jane and experience these things that happen in her life. [...]
If you could give a character in the show one piece of advice, what would it be?
Run, Jane, run! (Olivia Rook)
Just Watch describes the film adaptation of Victorian Psycho as '‘Jane Eyre’ Meets ‘American Psycho’'.
Everyone loves a good period piece, and there's something to be said about the romance and whimsy of Jane Eyre-style period stories in particular. But while these tales are often lofty and low-stakes, A24's Victorian Psycho (2026) puts a twist on that you have to see to believe. (Nicholas Brooks)
BBC News reports on Charli XCX's show at Reading Festival.
The second act of the performance showcased the breadth of her work, as she moved from pop hit Track 10 from her 2017 mixtape, to the melancholic tones of House, which she co-wrote for the recent Wuthering Heights soundtrack album. (Naomi Clarke)
Also in The Standard and others.

Parade has an article on the release of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights in 1978.
   

More Myself than I Am at the Edinburgh Fringe

This week at the Edinburgh Fringe 2026, seven years after its first Edinburgh run:
Talking Shadows Company presents
by Rebecca Vines
The Space on the Mile, Aug 24-29 12:35 (50 mins)

A vivid exploration of how three sheltered young women from a remote Yorkshire parsonage created some of the most raw, violent and passionate literary works of all time. Charlotte: the ambitious dreamer. Emily: the intense loner. Anne: the gentle, would-be social reformer. And their brother Branwell: the brilliant "lost" boy whose disappointments served only to highlight the extraordinary success of his sisters.
   

Imaginative and Supernatural

According to The Telegraph & Argus, the Brontë Birthplace will take part in Heritage Open Days 2026:
An exhibition at the birthplace will delve into the building’s past, tracing its journey through a butcher’s shop, visitor attraction, café, and a community-owned heritage site.
Thomas Haigh, vice chair and marketing and audience development lead at the Brontë Birthplace, said: "While the Brontë Birthplace will always be significant for being the first home of Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell, we know it enjoyed a rich history after their departure.
"We want to share this 200-year story with our visitors as well as showcase the challenges, discoveries, and community effort behind the restoration and how this remarkable building continues to evolve and serve a new generation of visitors."
The exhibition will feature photographs, plans, memories, and other artefacts that reveal the many lives of the building since the Brontë family lived there.
A free walking tour of Thornton will also be offered as part of the Heritage Open Days programme.
Led by local historian and Brontë family expert Paul Crossley, the two-hour tour will begin at the birthplace and take visitors to key sites including the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Kipping House, South Square Centre, and the village’s historic snickets and ginnels.
The tour concludes at the Brontë Birthplace, where visitors can enjoy the café, browse the gift shop, or book a house tour. (...)
The Brontë Birthplace exhibition will be open from 11am to 4pm on Sunday, September 13, with Mr Haigh available to answer questions from visitors.
The walking tour will take place on Saturday, September 19, starting at 11am.
Both events are free to attend. (Harry Williams)
FanCarpet gives the last details before the new production of Jane Eyre opens at Southwark Playhouse Elephant tonight:
Perhaps the production's most distinctive feature is its ensemble-led approach.
Rather than relying solely on Jane to narrate her own story, the entire company shares responsibility for carrying her voice throughout the performance.
It is an imaginative theatrical device that preserves the novel's first-person perspective while embracing the collaborative nature of live theatre.
BookClub reviews Jennifer Vandever's The Brontë Project:
However, having returned to it again, it has been a really good read and one that was unexpectedly so, delivering with its dialogue and its quirkiness as well as educating me a lot more about Charlotte Brontë.
Sara is a research student whose specialism is Charlotte Brontë and in life, she is pretty certain that she knows where it's heading: she's going to get married to Paul and honeymoon in Paris and then, she's going to continue her research study and find undiscovered letters written by Charlotte which will propel her into the academic stratosphere. (Rachel Deeming)
Clarín (Argentina) highlights some romantasy books like The Knight and the Moth
El caballero y la polilla de la superventas Rachel Gillig. Un libro de fantasía oscura y romance que toma referencias de Jane Eyre y Juego de tronos. Una joven clarividente atrapada en una catedral y un caballero grosero, atractivo y sin respeto por las profecías. (Translation)
The Sun's mini crossword contains a Brontë-related question today:
Yorkshire town where the Brontë family lived.
Islands explores Wycoller Hall and mentions its connection to the Brontës. The Brontë Society's next year's conference already has a topic and a call for papers:
CALL FOR PAPERS! 📝
We're inviting proposals for papers on The Brontës and the Supernatural for a one day, in-person symposium in Haworth. 👻
This symposium seeks to broaden the parameters of Gothic scholarship on the Brontës by exploring the diverse supernatural traditions, beliefs and cultural narratives that informed the family’s imaginative and everyday worlds. We welcome new and original symposium paper proposals from academics, postgraduates and enthusiasts on topics that have perhaps received less attention.
Proposals (of no more than 300 words) for 20-minute papers should be submitted to bronte@bronte.org.uk with the subject 'Symposium' by 31 December 2026.
   

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