The literary heritage of Yorkshire
The Bronte sisters, Charlotte (1816-1855), Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849), were all born in Thornton, Bradford, but moved in 1820 to their more famous home at Haworth Parsonage in West Yorkshire, when their father was appointed Curate of Haworth. It was here where their famous classics of English Literature (Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were written. Their works were first published under the respective pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; this was to disguise their gender as they lived in an age of prejudice against female writers. The Parsonage today houses the Bronte Museum.
It was whilst the girls were living here that they wrote their famous English literature classic works – Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. As there was great prejudice against female writers at that time, the girls disguised their gender by publishing their first works under the respective pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
Alan Bennett (actor, screenwriter, playwright and novelist) was born in Leeds in 1934. Bennett’s many works include Forty Years On, The History Boys and the renowned series of observational monologues collectively entitled Talking Heads. Bennett first came to fame in 1960 as part of the cast of the satirical revue Beyond The Fringe at the Edinburgh Festival. Bennett used his recollections of his days as a choirboy at St Michael’s Church, Headingley as the basis of the show’s sketch Take A Pew, which is now used in theological colleges as an example of how a sermon should not be preached! Bennett once said, with typical modesty and self-deprecation, “My only claim to literary fame is that I used to deliver meat to a woman who became T S Eliot’s mother-in-law”.
Simon Armitage, who was born in Huddersfield in 1963, is perhaps best-known as an award-winning poet, but he has also written novels, plays, screenplays and song lyrics. He is well-known to younger readers because his poetry is often studied for GCSE.
The playwright and novelist John Boynton (J B) Priestley (1894-1984) was born in Bradford. He produced 26 novels, including The Good Companions, and numerous dramas. Some of his plays (including An Inspector Calls, Dangerous Corner and Time and the Conways) feature an ingenious element of timeslip.
James Herriot was the pen-name of James Alfred Wight (1916-1995). He was born in Sunderland, County Durham, but the series of Yorkshire Dales novels for which he is famous are based on his real-life experiences of working as a country vet in Thirsk.
James Alfred Wight (1916-1995) was born in Sunderland, County Durham, but he is better known as James Herriott. His famous series of novels set in the Yorkshire Dales are based on his own experiences of working as a vet in the North Yorkshire town of Thirsk.
Abraham (“Bram”) Stoker (1847-1912) was born in Dublin, but much of his world-famous vampire novel Dracula is set in the Yorkshire coastal town of Whitby.
The city of Hull has now honoured its famous adopted son with a tourist trail, and a statue of the poet (together with five slate plaques featuring his work) can be seen at the city’s railway station. Larkin is buried in Hull at the Cottingham Municipal Cemetery.
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