Thursday 17 April 2008

Ghosts at the Bronte Parsonage

I've been so inspired by the comments in response to the last post -- including Maylin's marvelous story (please do check it out!) about Bronte ghosts, that I wanted to tell people about a visit I made to the Bronte Parsonage in the summer of 2006, to attend a seance. I wrote about it for the Sunday Telegraph and I hope you enjoy it. It even has a du Maurier connection, in the form of Henrietta Llewelyn Davies -- great grand-daughter of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies -- who will be taking part in the event I'm doing at the du Maurier festival in Cornwall on May 10.
Anyway, tomorrow I'm returning to the Parsonage, but this time with Daphne du Maurier's daughter, Lady Tessa Montgomery. I'll report back if we see any ghosts, in the form of sheep or otherwise...

7 comments:

BrontëBlog Adm. said...

Ooh, I remember being very intrigued by that article, Justine. And it came back to me at the first mention of the Llewelyn Davies in Daphne. (Is too nosy to ask from which of the brothers does Henrietta descend?).

Talking about ghosts, etc. There's a book out there called Strange World of the Brontës by marie Campbell, usually on sale at the Parsonage shop or the rest of Haworth bookshops. It's a curious thing - some things are totally unbelievable - to me - others are... interesting.

Justine Picardie said...

Henrietta is the grand-daughter of Jack Llewelyn Davies. And here's another strange coincidence -- I was at this very moment searching for Marie Campbell's book on amazon, but it's out of print, so I'll look for it in Haworth. It sounds wonderfully arcane.

Maylin said...

What a fascinating experience you had! Did you ever see the subsequent exhibition? I'm having a bit of trouble picturing what it was like but Cornelia sounds like a very interesting artist - I've made a note to investigate her work further.

Kerry said...

I'm loving following you at the moment. I'm now reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall inspired by you and DGR, and am ever so grateful to have been urged in this direction.

Juxtabook said...

Tried very hard to get tickets to see you at Haworth, having thoroughly enjoyed Daphne, but it was sold out - unsurprisingly - but I hope it was a really good evening. I often take friends, visiting from southern parts, round the Parsonage, and never tire of seeing it however often I go. I hope you packed your thermals as it is freezing here!

Justine Picardie said...

So sorry you didn't manage to get tickets -- I wish you'd been able to send me a message about it, because I would have got you in as my guest!
And Kerry -- so glad you're enjoying the reading trails. Am just about to do a quick post about last night...

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