By Community Correspondent Ruba Ameen

Over the past few weeks, the nation has been awash with numerous literary-related events, including World Book Day and Reading Week as the leading celebrations of literature past and present. This is a clear mark of the vitally important role of any written matter in today’s society; whether it be a classic novel, an everyday email or a trashy magazine, no one is free from the grip and power of words and literature.

Events like World Book Day could, in their mighty popularity, raise awareness to one issue in particular that I will discuss now: amidst today’s blog updates and grammatically deficient text messages, I urge you not to be encouraged to dismiss those revolutionary novels that explore eternally relevant issues. What I refer to here is those unmistakable favourites, of which countless television adaptations are directed and aired to entertain our dreary Sunday afternoons. With around 45 film, television and radio adaptations between them, ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ are clearly the most popular. And the simple biological connection between these two cutting-edge creations? The remarkable sisterly duo behind them, Charlotte and Emily Brontë.

It is their astounding inventions, as well as the currently focused study of Surbiton High School A-level students on ‘Elements of the Gothic’, that encouraged a trip to the Brontë parsonage in Haworth, Yorkshire. This offered an amazing opportunity, in being fortunate enough to see the very home that inspired two of English Literature’s most popular pieces.

And so it is with a real appreciation that I admit the trip to be worth the bitter weather met on the Yorkshire Moors. Not only was the parsonage immaculate in its presentation of a day in the life of the Brontë’s, but its continuing popularity shows the deep impact of these classic novels on readers, and underlines their lingering roles as emblems of English Literature.