According to Love Exploring and as reported by Lancashire Telegraph, Wycoller is among England's 'under-the-radar spots'. A Lancashire village has been named among England’s most underrated spots by travel site Love Exploring. Introducing the list, it said: “England is filled with pretty towns and villages, each with its own unique charm – and while it's easy to be drawn to the more well-known destinations, this often means overlooking hidden gems. “To help you discover these lesser-known treasures, we've selected and ranked what, in our opinion, are the most under-the-radar delights from each of England's 39 historic counties.” Wycoller made the list, ranking in 10th place, and it’s the only spot in Lancashire to be included. Love Exploring says the Lancashire village is a “beautiful hamlet” with links to famous author Charlotte Brontë. It adds: “Although very little of it remains, the beautiful hamlet of Wycoller still has much to offer lovers of the English picturesque. “Largely abandoned in the 19th century, when it was due to be flooded to make way for a reservoir, it now consists mostly of atmospheric ruins, including 16th-century Wycoller Hall (pictured) which is thought to be the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. “Nearby Wycoller Beck is a pretty woodland stream crossed by seven ancient bridges, one of which (Clam Bridge) is believed to be over 1,000 years old.” Historic UK said: “This sleepy village now forms part of a beautiful country park. “Wycoller is probably most famous for its Bronte connection.” It adds: “The Brontës lived at Haworth, not far from Wycoller, and Charlotte would have passed through here on her way to Gawthorpe Hall when she went to stay with the Kay-Shuttleworths. “Charlotte’s description of Ferndean Manor when approached from the old coach road fits Wycoller Hall perfectly.” (Katie Collier)
According to Indy100 it's the 'summer of yearning'. So, perhaps we've spent too many times re-watching Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights adaptation, or accidentally become hyperfixated on that free-climbing couple engaged at the top of the Empire State Building, but one thing's conclusive: Having a crush is cool again. And an out-of-reach one? Even better. (Sophie Thompson) El Debate (in Spanish) has an article on Jane Eyre: Jane Eyre, elogio de una mujer insignificante Hay libros que tienen algo de patria chica, lugares a los que regresar con cariño, novelas que, pasado el tiempo, te siguen rondando. Y rara vez sucede que su relectura defraude. Puede ser, en el peor de los casos, que, como aquel paisaje o casa de tu infancia, las dimensiones cambien: aquello parecía entonces más grande, ahora se ve diferente, pero sigue siendo entrañable. Sin embargo, cuando una novela realmente te llama, si notas que te pide volver a leerla, lo que a menudo ocurre es que descubras en ella nuevos encantos. Por eso, habitualmente, la relectura de lo que te conmovió y te reclama suele ser tan agradable. (...) (Translation)(Aurora Pimentel)
A couple of alerts for tomorrow, July 5:
At the Brontë Birthplace:
Sunday 5th July, 10am – 12pm The Brontë Birthplace Tearoom, 72-74 Market Street, Thornton BD13 3HF
Inspired by the Brontës’ Garden: Sweet Peas in Crepe Paper In this gentle and inspiring workshop, you will create delicate sweet peas from crepe paper, drawing inspiration from the world of the Brontës. Sweet peas were grown in the garden by Emily Brontë, while Charlotte Brontë, though less interested in gardening, captured these fragile flowers in her sketches. In her letters, she even wondered whether Sicilian sweet peas, whose seeds had been given to them by a friend, would survive the unpredictable Yorkshire weather. The art of paper flower making began in ancient China and later spread across the world. In Europe, it became especially popular in past centuries, when fresh flowers were hard to find during winter. In Eastern Europe, paper flowers were used to decorate homes and as festive ornaments. During this mindful workshop, you will learn how to cut, shape and assemble your own sweet pea stem, and leave with a handmade floral piece to take home. All materials are provided. The workshop is suitable for participants of all skill levels and is open to adults and children aged 10+. The workshop is led by Iryna Zhydetska, a Ukrainian paper artist living in the Brontë country. This event is taking place during Thornton Open Gardens weekend, a great chance to create a lasting momento of nature’s beauty.
A Bradford Literature Festival Event:
Sunday, 5 July 2026 | 16:00 – 17:30 Main Hall, St George’s Hall, BD1 1JT
Experience the magic of choral music inspired by some of the most powerful voices in literature, performed live by the Leeds Guild of Singers. This specially curated programme brings together musical settings of texts by William Blake, William Shakespeare, Emily Brontë and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, alongside contemporary compositions that reflect the continuing dialogue between poetry and music. Spanning centuries of writing and a wide range of choral styles, the programme explores how composers return to literary texts for inspiration, reinterpretation and emotional depth. Moving between sacred reflection, folklore and lyric poetry, this performance reveals how words written centuries ago continue to resonate through collective voice. Join us for an evening where literature is not only read, but heard in harmony.
Yorkshire Live reports that Love Exploring has named Haworth as the prettiest village in Yorkshire. "Haworth, forever tied to the Brontë sisters, inspired seminal novels like Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The village’s cobbled streets preserve its 19th-century grace while its stone-built houses, often constructed from locally quarried gritstone, give the buildings their distinct earthy hue," writes Love Exploring, which placed Haworth at number five on its list of England's prettiest villages. "The neighbouring South Pennine moors – central to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights – feature wild moors, which in summer are painted purple and green by blooming heather and bilberry." The Brontës are the world's most famous literary family and Haworth Parsonage was their home from 1820 to 1861. Charlotte, Emily and Anne were the authors of some of the best-loved books in the English language. The museum holds the world's largest collection of original Brontë items, including furniture, books, paintings and clothes. Haworth's traffic-free high street is glorious, laid with setts and curling down the hill from the church to central park, with the moors rising behind the sandstone houses on the other side of the Worth Valley There's surely no more romantic way to travel the moorland of Brontë Country than in a steam-drawn carriage. The railway has strong cultural links too — the beautiful Oakworth Station appeared in the 1970 children's classic The Railway Children. Haworth is surrounded by the moors, making it a great place for walks, with trails leading through landscapes that inspired some of the greatest works in English literature. The most popular walk is to the Brontë Waterfall, easily reached from Penistone Hill country park. It is mainly flat with fantastic views of the moors. Above Haworth, a little way up the Brontë Way from the waterfall, stands the desolate ruin of an old farmhouse. A plaque was placed here by the Brontë Society in 1964, musing that the moors here may have been in Emily Brontë's mind when she chose a location for Wuthering Heights. Haworth is a hub of unique independent shops, from art to clothes, jewellery to fine gifts, fancy toiletries, books and homewares . Its main street is made up of immaculately kept old-fashioned shop fronts and welcoming shopkeepers. Visit Bradford Haworth also has a great pub scene serving traditional Yorkshire ales. Some of the old pubs like the Black Bull are believed to be haunted by Branwell, the only brother of the Brontë sisters and a family black sheep. (Milo Boyd)
Elle has picked 'The Best Songs of 2026' (because 'Spotify Wrapped season is mere months away') and one of them is Dying for You” by Charli XCX “Charli XCX knows pop music. As one of its hardest-working pioneers, she can alchemize a hook out of any emotion—a skill she wields to great effect on her companion album for Emerald Fennell’s cinematic adaptation of Wuthering Heights. On ‘Dying for You,’ she clearly understood her assignment, deploying frenzied strings and a bombastic chorus to capture the headlong rush of Cathy and Heathcliff’s onscreen relationship. It also wouldn’t sound out of place on The CW’s Gossip Girl, which makes it a perfect soundtrack song.”—Daniel Taroy, director, social and video
Ara features the last episode of the podcast Punkis Decimonòniques, which was, like the first, about Agnes Grey. The origin of it all is a question: "You, who are so feminist, how is it that you like Jane Austen or the Brontës?" they told her. "Precisely because of that!" Pujals replies. "There was a need to explain that behind the image of teacups there is a lot of feminist activism". "We have talked about economics, class struggle, the position of women, very serious things and with rigor, but adapted to the millennial and Z generations," adds Freixenet. After all, "Jane Austen invented the "ghosting" and Anne Brontë warned of the red flags of toxic masculinity, as we learned on Wednesday, who cited Rosalía and the Starks. The last chapter is an hour and a half of juice about the life and work of the youngest of the Brontë sisters and her "moralistic and raw" Agnes Grey. For Pujals, it is "a great guide to navigating your thirties; there are phrases that seem to be taken from Substack, and as a good millennial, she clearly has imposter syndrome." Despite the literary quality of the work, however, she is not the most popular author. It turns out that it was the elder sister, Charlotte ("Jane Eyre), the last of the Brontës to die, who blurred Anne's image as simply "pious and bland" and curbed the dissemination of her work, especially that inspired by her alcoholic brother. "She was the sister with more class consciousness, the most radical," they argue. And that is why she is chosen to close the podcast, which ended with the same phrase as Agnes Grey": "I feel like I've talked enough." (Laura Serra)
That last quote is a direct translation from the Spanish ttranslation. Anne's actual words were 'And now I think I have said sufficient'.
Date: Saturday 4th July | 11am – 1pm Starting Point: The Bronte Birthplace, 72-74 Market Street, Thornton, BD13 3HF.
Join Paul Crossley and the Brontë Birthplace for our Walking Tour of historic Thornton, uncovering the rich cultural, industrial, and architectural heritage of the Brontë children’s birthplace. For many years, Thornton has been the forgotten chapter in the Brontë story but since the grand opening of the Brontë Birthplace, we’re working to shine a light on the fascinating history of this charming and characterful village. Led by local historian and Brontë family expert Paul and a group of local volunteers, this 2-hour tour begins at the Brontë Birthplace and guides you through key sites including the Brontë Bell Chapel ruins, Kipping House, South Square Centre, and the village’s iconic snickets and ginnels. Once overlooked, Thornton’s story is now being brought to life. Step into its vibrant past and discover how it helped shape the Brontës. The tour ends back at the Birthplace, where you’re welcome to relax in the café, browse the gift shop, or book a house tour.
Fine Books Magazine features the results of the auction of the first edition of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey: A first edition of Wuthering Heights together with Agnes Grey has sold at Christie’s London for £1,206,500 in its live The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures auction setting a new world auction record by Emily Brontë. The set is one of the finest examples in private hands, and no textually complete copy has appeared at auction in publisher’s cloth since 1908. It survives in its original 1847 publisher’s cloth binding and retains the distinctive textual and printing irregularities of the first edition. It is also the highest price ever achieved for 19th century literature and for any printed book by a woman. Only 250 copies of the first edition of Wuthering Heights were printed and examples in their original full-cloth binding are scarce with only five other examples known (The Blavatnik-Honresfield copy at Brotherton Library, University of Leeds; University of Oxford; British Library; Charlotte Brontë's annotated copy with pages missing sold at Christie’s New York in 2009; and Anne Brontë's annotated copy at Princeton University Library). This copy bound in diagonally ribbed green-grey cloth with floral patterns and arabesques stamped on the cover has been kept in the same historic house library in England since just after its publication in 1847.
We are delighted with the record-breaking, of course, but we wonder why it's just attributed to Emily. We know Wuthering Heights is far more popular than Agnes Grey, but shouldn't the record-breaking be shared by both Emily and Anne? Or is there an actual reason why it's not?
The Week has Deborah Lutz pick her '6 favourite biographies' and one of them is ‘The Brontës’ by Juliet Barker (1994) A giant, door stopping account of an entire literary family, Barker’s book is a monumental achievement. But it is also riveting and tragic, telling of the passions, failures, and early deaths of the four Brontë siblings, with a specific focus on Emily and Charlotte, the authors of Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.
Collider has selected and ranked 'The 10 Best Classic Rock Songs Inspired by Famous Books' and among them is 7 "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush Inspired by 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Brontë Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" follows the turbulent romance between the orphan Heathcliff and the affluent Catherine Earnshaw. Having been adopted by the Earnshaw family, Heathcliff develops a close bond with Catherine — only to have his heart broken when she marries the wealthy Edgar Linton. Years later, Heathcliff returns to society, this time as a man of status and eager to exact revenge. Kate Bush puts the novel to music with "Wuthering Heights," written from Catherine's perspective after her death. From direct references to the Yorkshire moors — "Out on the wily, windy moors" — to self-confessional lyrics reflecting the couple's passionate yet emotionally draining romance, "Wuthering Heights" reflects the same volatile nature of Brontë's seminal work. (Dyah Ayu Larasati)
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