To celebrate the 250th anniversary of The Leeds Library and 200 years of the Brontës, a panel of Romantic Novelists Association members will discuss modernising Brontë classics and the enduring appeal of the themes.
This free event will take place on 12 July at 7.30 pm at The Leeds Library, 18 Commercial Street, Leeds.
The panel will include ‘Juliet Bell’ and Kate Walker. Juliet Bell is the collaborative pen name of Janet Gover and Alison May, whose latest release is The Heights, a modern re-telling of Wuthering Heights set in 1980s Yorkshire. Kate Walker wrote her MA on the Brontë sisters and their childhood writings. She is the author of a ‘Modern Romance’ reworking of Wuthering Heights entitled The Return Of The Stranger; part of The Powerful and The Pure mini-series written for Harlequin Mills & Boon.
‘Juliet Bell’ was born at a writers’ conference, with a chance remark about heroes who are far from heroic. She was raised on pizza and wine during many long working lunches, and finished her first novel over cloud storage and Skype in 2017. Juliet shares Janet and Alison’s preoccupation with misunderstood classic fiction, and stories that explore the darker side of relationships.
Kate Walker grew up in West Yorkshire, just 10 miles from Haworth, the home of the Brontës. She has an MA in English from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, focusing on Emily and Charlotte’s childhood writings. She has written over 60 titles for Harlequin Mills and Boon. Her novels have been published in over thirty-five countries in over twenty different languages worldwide.
The Leeds Library is a wonderful mix of the old and the new located at the very heart of a busy shopping centre.
It was founded in 1768 as a proprietary subscription library and is now the oldest surviving example of this sort of library in the British Isles. It boasts Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) as one of its original subscribers. The collections are particularly rich in travel, topography, biography, history and literature. There are long runs of periodicals, popular novels, children’s books and Civil War pamphlets and Reformation Tracts. About 1,500 new books and audio/visual items are added every year, most of which are recommended by the members. A large proportion of the Library’s holdings is available for loan to its members. The Library became a charity on 1 July 2008.
Tickets are free, but registration is essential via Eventbrite.
Pictured above is Kate Walker
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