Graham Watson and The Invention of Charlotte Brontë

Graham Watson, author of The Invention of Charlotte Brontë, gave an illuminating talk to the Brussels Brontë Group on his investigations into the writing and reception of Elizabeth Gaskell’s 1857 biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë. 

Bella Ellis on her Brontë Mysteries series of novels

Rowan Coleman, the author of over 40 novels, gave the Brussels Brontë Group an engaging talk on Saturday about her quartet of mystery books starring the Brontë siblings as amateur detectives. 

 

These novels, published under the pseudonym Bella Ellis, see the Brontës take on the part of amateur detectives in order to solve crimes. They are set around 1845, which Rowan explained is the year the first “detectors” were created as part of the relatively new Metropolitan Police Force. 

More things Brontë in Ireland!

Since my first visit to Banagher in Ireland in 2013 when I was on the trail of Arthur Bell Nicholls, I have noticed that a real Brontë hype has developed in the Emerald Isle. 

Brussels Brontë Group goes to Haworth – photo gallery

Here is a selection of photos from the delightful trip to Haworth that members of the Brussels Brontë Group took in June 2025, taking in the Parsonage Museum and the surrounding Brontë Country, including stops at the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton and Roe Head School in Mirfield. 

 

Led by the tireless Helen MacEwan and Joanne Wilcock, the group visited Oakwell Hall in Birstall and Shibden Hall in Halifax, and some members even trekked over the moors to Top Withens. There was also an expedition to Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast, where Anne Brontë is buried.

On a special Brontë mission in Haworth

One member of the Brussels Brontë Group on the trip to Haworth in June was on a mission of her own apart from her desire to see a place she had long wanted to visit. 

Ann Dinsdale and Carmen Albaladejo