The author Bonnie Greer has quoted Jane Eyre’s calm assertion that “I will be myself” in the wake of a dispute over the future of the Brontë Society that saw her resign from her position as president this weekend. The clash, which
dates back to last summer, centres on how the organisation is being run, with one faction calling for the society, founded in 1893 and one of the oldest such literary groups in the world, to be modernised. It runs the
Brontë Parsonage Museum, in the Yorkshire village of Haworth where the Brontë family once lived, and is also responsible for “promoting the Brontës’ literary legacy within contemporary society” . There are bicentenaries for Charlotte Brontë in 2016,
told the Telegraph that trustees of the society “have become divorced from the local community”. He added: “They say they do not want to be seen as the snobs on the top of the hill, but they are. We have not enjoyed watching them implode. But the Brontë legacy is just bumbling on. It is not like the Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare [organisations]. The society needs to get its act together.”
Emily Brontë in 2018 and Anne Brontë in 2020. But John Huxley, local parish council chairman,
At an annual general meeting on 6 June, where Greer used a Jimmy Choo shoe as a gavel to bring order – and, she later said, “levity” – to proceedings, a report by consultants on the society’s future recommended “draw[ing] a line under past conflict”, bringing in more committee members with museum management experience and healing the “growing rift” with the village,
reported the Yorkshire Post. Read more on:
theguardian/bonnie-greer-resigns-bronte-society-yorkshire
Emily Brontë in 2018 and Anne Brontë in 2020. But John Huxley, local parish council chairman, 