"From lakes, bogs, and marshes debarred"

USA Today thinks that this fall is particularly full of film adaptations of novels:

Didn't read the book? Not to worry. A flurry of movies pegged to best-selling books — both classic and contemporary — arrive in theaters this fall and winter, primers for those who never quite made it through the real deal.
English majors will love Emily Brontë's romantic Wuthering Heights (Oct. 5) (Craig Wilson)

Not all the owners or bookstores in England are Brontëites. In the Norwich Evening News:

“My background is theatre, so for years I would mostly read and work on plays and scripts,” [Henry Laite] said. “Now, what I’m reading most is unpublished books by new writers, which is great, but I don’t get the chance to read much of what is coming out.
“I have never really done the classics, so I have bypassed the likes of Austin (sic) and Brontë. (Rosa McMahon) 

The Toronto Star makes use of a literary metaphore to illustrate the NHL possible lockout:

Look, there was never any chance at all the NHL was going to come back to the NHLPA on Wednesday with news that the union’s “alternate” view had created a new understanding and basis for an agreement.
The league threw out a ridiculous proposal last month, and the players’ response was to completely ignore that proposal and come up with one of their own. And now the league has dismissed that out-of-hand.
It was like a book debate between a professor analyzing the work of the Brontë sisters and another focusing on The Brothers Karamazov.
They’re not even involved in the same conversation. (Damien Cox)

The New Zealand Herald interviews the TV writer Rachel Lang:

To which of the female characters you've written do you most relate?All of them, because every character has an aspect I can relate to, or something I would like to be more or less of. Although I do have a soft spot for Jane, in The Blue Rose, which we're shooting now (played by Antonia Prebble). Jane is more like me than most of my characters, and named after two of my literary heroines - Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. (Sarah Daniell)

It's a rather ambiguous statement but we hope that in the literary heroines category she include both real and fictional ones.

Fifty Shades of Grey is arriving to the local newspapers. We read in the East Grinstead Courier and Observer:

Sue [Young, librarian] added: "It's not a new story – it's a re-hash of the virginal, submissive woman in a relationship with a damaged man, and I loved Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre.

Even local foreign papers, like La Opinión de Murcia (Spain):

Muy distante, por tanto, del camino que abrieron escritoras como Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Wolf, e incluso Charlotte Brönte (sic) con su Jane Eyre, quienes trataron, desde el punto de vista femenino, de definir modelos y arquetipos capaces de transmitir el papel de la mujer en la sociedad actual (más allá de la oposición del mundo masculino frente al femenino) por su condición intelectual, valores socio-políticos, y una cultura en femenino. (Manuel Martínez Arnaldos) (Translation)

The Library Journal Reviews qualifies of promising debut the upcoming steampunk take on Jane Eyre by Tina Connolly: Ironskin;  Published Bestsellers reviews In Search of Ireland Again by John Butler;  Rebecca Chesney from the Brontë Weather Project is reading Shirley, the book is reviewed on Bibliomaniak and  krople delikatnych słów o... (both in Polish) ; A Happier Emily reviews The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; The Lost Girl and Silhouettes in Sunsets are visiting Haworth and Brontë country; Many Media Musings reviews Agnes Grey; Letto fra Noi (in Italian) posts about Juliet Gael's Romancing Miss Brontë; Mightysparks reviews Jane Eyre 1944; Two Pints of Milk a Packet of Teabags and criticize me (in French) do the same with Jane Eyre 2011;  Books for thought posts about April Lindner's Jane; Quickflix (Australia) publishes a lukewarm review of Wuthering Heights 2011:

With some beautiful performances, a non-existent soundtrack, and a fresh and youthful approach to a now 165 year old story, Wuthering Heights is a laborious yet rewarding trip to the Yorkshire moors. While it will struggle to resonate with mainstream audiences, period enthusiasts are encouraged to seek it out. (Jess Lomas)

Taryn Raye~ Romance Writer interviews a colleague, C.C. Marks:

What book(s) most influenced you as a writer?That’s a toughy. So many books were influential. As a romance writer, I loved reading books by Johanna Lindsey, Julie Garwood, and more recently, Kresley Cole and Rachel Gibson. But most influential would have to be Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. It was probably the first romance (*spoiler alert: doesn’t have a happy ending) that really wrung me out emotionally.

dSavannah rambles questions Stephanie Kate Strohm:

Your favorite book growing up? Your favorite book now?
Little Women was my favorite book as a kid. Jo March is the reason I started writing in 4th grade, and I stillconsider the fact that (spoiler alert!) Jo refused Laurie’s proposal the greatest literary tragedy of all time.Wuthering Heights became my favorite book in high school, and it still is to this day.

An don't forget to check the Nelly I am heathcliiiiffff pencil drawing, tweeted by Kate Beaton.

Finally, we would like to bring attention to the Ban the Burn! campaign:

“Town that won’t stop flooding: Hebden Bridge cleans up for the third time in three weeks.” That was a Daily Mail headline on July 11th 2012. It was a slight exaggeration. Most people who live in Hebden are pretty sure they were only flooded twice, but it was enough. Cars were submerged, the library was evacuated, people were stranded, the main road was closed, businesses were wrecked, homes swamped, livelihoods devastated.
Could this be climate change in action? Maybe. Or it could be a direct result of more localised environmental damage.
A story is emerging involving a millionaire landowner, a government minister, environmental breaches at a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), a mysteriously dropped court case, the profitability of shooting grouse, and the spending of taxpayers’ cash. The setting: the wuthering heights above Hebden Bridge, famed moors of the Brontës. The unlikely heroes of the piece are blanket bog and sphagnum moss.
On Sunday August 12th, flood-hit residents of Hebden Bridge and campaigners from across the country set out from the town centre on a protest walk to the Walshaw Moor grouse-shooting estate. Following the walk, the Ban the Burn! national campaign launch took place at Hebden Bridge Trades Club.
Timed to coincide with ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ (the opening of the grouse-shooting season), the day of action highlighted the damaging effects of burning and draining on the moors: increased flood risk downstream; very significant carbon emissions; adverse impacts on water quality and the destruction of ecologically significant habitat.
The campaigners are demanding a ban on burning and drainage of blanket bogs, which are protected under the European Union Habitats Directive and the UK Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010. (read more)

N.B.: The post's title comes from Patrick Brontë's poem The Irish Cabin (1811).