Meeting Irish author Michael O’Dowd

Several years ago, I reviewed Irish author Michael O’Dowd’s book on Charlotte Brontë’s honeymoon in Ireland: Charlotte Brontë – An Irish Odyssey. On our trip to Ireland this summer, we managed to meet Michael and had a fascinating discussion about Charlotte and other Brontë-related topics – despite some unpleasant weather. 

Impromptu Brontë walk with poet Emma Conally-Barklem

I had a very impromptu Brontë walk on Saturday with the poet Emma Conally-Barklem. She had come all the way from Yorkshire to Brussels for the weekend with her partner to see Pink! on her Summer Carnival Tour in the King Baudouin stadium and to walk in the footsteps of Charlotte Brontë. 

In one weekend, she managed to combine “meeting” two of her idols: one a hugely popular singer songwriter, real pop royalty from the U.S.; and the other an equally popular novelist who has been dead for more than 150 years, but whose work has lived on and is loved by many generations of readers. 

'Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë'

We were delighted to welcome U.S. professor and novelist Dean de la Motte, who joined us on Saturday 15 June for our annual summer lunch and afterwards gave a talk on his novel Oblivion: The Lost Diaries of Branwell Brontë. The event, arranged to fit in with Dean’s annual summer stay in France, was well-attended and proved to be a very successful addition to the talks originally scheduled for this year. 

Another guided walk led by historian Christophe Loir

Dr Christophe Loir of the ULB’s History, Arts and Archaeology faculty on Sunday 26 May 2024 led a second guided walk devised specially for the Brussels Brontë Group. Dr Loir, an expert on architecture and town planning, devoted his Sunday morning to plunging us into the Brussels of the early 1840s, the Brussels of the Brontës. 

Fourteen of us turned out and we gathered just after a torrential downpour; happily the rain held off almost completely during our two-hour walk. The theme of the walk was ‘Entre les deux gares bruxellois au temps des soeurs Brontë’ — ‘Between the North and South railway stations in the Brontës’ time’ — and Dr Loir highlighted, among other things, changes to the city brought by the arrival of the railway. 

Another step on Brontë Sisters Square in Koekelberg

A further step has just been taken towards seeing the Brontë sisters return to the Brussels municipality of Koekelberg, at least in spirit. A public consultation meeting was held on 16 May to update Koekelberg residents on plans to name a square after the Brontë sisters and to invite their comments.