4. Hathersage

Hathersage has strong literary connections - having inspired Charlotte Brontë while she was writing Jane Eyre. The nearby North Lees Hall (pictured here) also became the main inspiration for Thornfield Hall. (Tom Hardwick)

Where did this book even come from? “The novel started out as my thesis during my MFA at Cornell,” the author explains. “I had this idea of a girl and her brother, this sibling relationship, which is at the heart of the novel. The dynamics of this family and the relationship between the siblings, and the roots of all of that, was also something I was interested in very early on. I read Jane Eyre for the first time in graduate school (late, I know!) and soon after that I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, and I was mind-blown. The Gothic as a vehicle for the story of this family started to appeal to me early on, this picture of a house that’s no longer able to hold its secrets, and the novel grew from there.

“Jane Eyre and Rebecca both play with things that are revealed and the things that are kept hidden, both from the characters and from the reader. I was also very fascinated by black Gothic, with books like Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and a lot of Buchi Emecheta’s work, like Second Class Citizen, which plays with the idea of not just physical confinement but psychological confinement within systems. Add to that the burden of innocence on a character when human beings and circumstances conspire to paint you guilty or deprive you of a voice.” (Neil Nyren)

Swift subverts the classic "scorned woman" trope by recounting these wrongs, not with vengeful rage, but with calm, chilling clarity. "When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost / If he's killing you, I see you, I was patient zero," she sings in the song's final lines.

She's like Bertha Mason in the attic, warning Jane Eyre of Mr. Rochester's evil, or Rebecca, hovering like a wraith over her murderous husband's estate; she's the woman who haunts the narrative long after she's gone. (Callie Ahlgrim)

A Mercury Theatre Colchester, Rose Theatre & Storyhouse co-production, in association with Northern Stage and supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust

Jane Eyre

Adapted by Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original Company.

Directed by Lily Dible

With Oscar Adams, Gabriel Akuwudike 

Mercury Theatre, Colchester 

26 September to 10 October

Rose Theatre, Kigston upon Thames

13 October to 20 October

Northern Stage, Newcastle

3 to 7 November

Storyhouse, Chester

10 to 21 November

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”

One woman’s fight for a life that is worthy of her courage, and a love that is worthy of her heart.

Orphaned as a young girl, the passionate and sensitive Jane longs to escape the clutches of her cruel aunt.

Freedom beckons when she is offered the job of a governess in the house of the brooding and secretive Mr Rochester.

As intrigue turns to attraction, Jane finds herself drawn in by Rochester’s mercurial charm. But when the truth finally comes out, she will be forced to choose between the man she wants, and the woman she wants to be.

Nearly two centuries on, Charlotte Brontë’s groundbreaking story is as thrilling and relevant as ever in this bold production directed by 2025 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award-winner Lily Dyble, based on Sally Cookson, Mike Akers and the original company’s trailblazing adaptation.

Paula Rego - Visions of English Literature

26 September - 21 November

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Little Elborow Street, Rugby, CV21 3BZ

Explore the extraordinary imagination of one of the great artists, printmakers and storytellers of our time. Paula Rego: Visions of English Literature will present three of the artist’s most ambitious series of graphic works; Jane Eyre, Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan. Each series will be accompanied by a variety of personal items from the artist, many of which have never been publicly displayed before. Unseen preparatory sketches, etching plates and Rego’s very own childhood copy of Peter Pan will offer audiences an intimate portrayal of the artist’s lifelong fascination with literature and an insight into how the artist transformed this material into startlingly original, rebellious and unexpected images.

The Old School Room in Haworth, whose original section was constructed in 1832 by the Rev. Patrick Brontë, has had five windows on its north-facing wall replaced as part of essential restoration work.

Averil Kenyon, chairman of The Brontë Spirit, the charity that maintains the building, said: "The south wall windows were replaced back in 2012, and it has taken us 14 years to raise sufficient funds to undertake the restoration of the north-facing windows.

"We’re delighted with the result because the new windows have been designed to match the style of the windows that were originally part of the building."

The project cost £24,000 and was supported by grants from the Bernard Sunley Foundation and The Pilgrim Trust. (Harry Williams)

The 135-minute show is punctuated by eight musical numbers and, though it is now almost obligatory for classic literature to be sung and danced (the most recent victim Jane Eyre), this is a logical candidate. (Mark Lawson)

Aïllada al poble diminut de les muntanyes pirinenques on ella i en Sebastià van anar a raure, en bona part perquè era el lloc on vivia un amic comú —que a l’inici de la novel·la es converteix en la nova parella de la protagonista—, la Jara sembla una reencarnació del Heathcliff de Cims borrascosos (una de les citacions que encapçalen la novel·la és d’Emily Brontë), com si perseguint-lo i invocant-lo en tot moment tingués també la prerrogativa de fer-lo present: inquieta i nerviosa, el busca pels paisatges que recorrien o al riu on es banyaven, acariciant els guants de llana que li havia regalat, o en les tres ratlles horitzontals —“una de ben recta que separa el cel gris clar del mar gris fosc, i una de desdibuixada que separa el mar gris fosc del prat mig gris”— de la fotografia que hi ha penjada al menjador. (Ponç Puigdevall) (Translation)