The Reverend Brontë into Fair Trade

Keighley News covers Fair Trade Day. Patrick Brontë himself made an appearance:

The walkers then travelled to Haworth on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. They were welcomed in Haworth by the Rainbow Morris dancers and members of Hebden Bridge Fairtrade Group who had walked ten miles from their own town.
The day also included a celebration at Haworth Old Hall and ended with a short play in Haworth Parish Church which connected the world of the Brontës with the issue of modern Fairtrade.
Karen Palframan, the chairman of Bradford Fairtrade Zone, said the play included the character of parson Patrick Brontë, who told his audience of the desperate plight of his parishioners suffering from ill health and poverty.
Ms Palframan said: “This linked to a scene with a 21st-century banana farmer in Ecuador who had suffered in a similar way until being able to join the Fairtrade system. This poignant play aptly demonstrated how Fairtrade is addressing the lack of workers’ rights in many developing countries and helping to lift farmers and workers out of poverty.” (Miran Rahman)

The Sunday Times interviews Irvine Welsh:

Is there still life in Trainspotting?
Britain’s changed so much and, these days, everyone swears. You don’t have the shock of language or drugs anymore, so I have to take some sort of blame or credit for that.
Do you have any regrets about the coarseness of it?
Not exactly Jane Eyre, is it? I’m already embarrassed for you. You’ll really have to do better than that. (Mark Edmonds)

USA Today talks about Margot Livesey's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:

How do you recast a classic? Follow Margot Livesey's lead in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a riveting retelling of Jane Eyre that puts the familiar feminist heroine in the pre-feminist world of early 1960s Scotland. The result is distinct and even daring — and far from derivative.

And Parkersburg News & Sentinel mentions Eve Marie Mont's A Breath of Eyre:

A girl is drawn into her favorite book in Eve Marie Mont's "A Breath of Eyre."
Emma feels like an outsider at her prep school and even at home with her father and stepmother.
She has a crush on cute family friend Gray Newman, but he will never see her as more than a friend.
When a friend of her deceased mom gives Emma a copy of "Jane Eyre" little does she know that Emma will be sucked into the book literally as a lightning storm makes her wake up in the body of Jane. Now Emma has the brooding Mr. Rochester to contend with, but is there a possibility for romance in her real life? Is Emma destined to be Jane forever or herself?
This is a cute romance story that will delight those who would love to become a character in their favorite book. (Amy Phelps)

Karen Lungu's column in the Cañon City Daily Record contains a Brontë reference:

If it were up to me, correspondence still would have a beginning, middle and end. It would resemble a letter between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. However, I've become accustomed to the clipped way we communicate through hurried texts and harried e-mails. Because of this, I believe our communication skills have become a bit ruder. I believe a heartfelt, "thank you" sounds better than a rushed, "thanks." And, my little darlins know I'm not big on slang. 

We really don't know if we can take this letter to The Telegraph & Argus seriously:

Sir – Charlotte, Emily, Anne or Branwell – which of the four super turbines scheduled for Thornton Moor should carry which name?
As the turbines are a done-deal, despite the chimera of a public inquiry, is it time to start thinking of them as being local assets with significant potential as tourist attractions, art objects, education and historical awareness?
I wonder if funds could be found by the energy company or the Arts Council – they sponsor condom-strewn beds and such rubbish! – and have proper or abstract images of the Brontë children painted on the turbines rather than them being the usual off-white? (Rose White)

Bianca Hewes thinks that the Brontës would have played Minecraft if living today.