Walking The Invisible: A literary guide through the walks and nature of the Brontë sisters, authors of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and their beloved Yorkshire

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The Telegraph 's Jasper Rees gave the drama five stars out of five describing the episode as "the Brontë sisters brought to fizzing, furious life," and similarly praised Adam Nagaitis' acting, noting that it was excellent. [13]

The title of the drama comes from a letter that Charlotte Brontë had written to her publisher about once meeting a clergyman who did not realise that she was Currer Bell. It suited her and her sisters that they were not famous; "What author would be without the advantage of being able to walk invisible?" [4] Plot [ edit ] The journeys taken cover the Haworth moorland and the streets of Bradford, inner-city Manchester, the Peak District and Scarborough. The author also retraces the walks he took along the Lancashire canals whilst writing Ill Will. The chapters span those places that held the deepest personal significance to the Brontes themselves, as well as those that held wider political and historical importance to the times in which they were writing. There is again something about connecting these history lessons with the act of walking which makes them seem even more significant. Discussions of the Liverpool slave trade, the Yorkshire Luddites, and the private co-opting of England's wild lands all seem far more relevant when discussed in relation to the land as it exists today. Like the best nature writing and walking guides, Walking the Invisible presents walking as a radical and creative process and one necessary for anyone wanting to understand the political and cultural history of England. The book makes you want to walk in Stewart’s (and the Brontës’!) footsteps and I can’t wait to visit Yorkshire again with the volume in hand. I especially loved reading about the genesis of the Brontë Stones project—a group of stones with poems honoring the sisters, which walkers can visit in the Thornton/Haworth area—and about the wide range of personalities whom Stewart has encountered due to their voracious love of the Brontës. He doesn’t offer a definitive answer as to why so many of us continue to be fascinated by one of literature’s most famous families, but his book will be a valuable artifact speaking to the early twenty-first-century version of the Brontë Myth (one which owes more to Kate Bush than to academia).What can I say. Michael Stewart knows how to describe scenery, and for that part I really loved this book, but at times, it also was boring and I noticed I stopped caring. I can't really say more than that it was okay and that it's okay to be just that. Maybe if you really are into the Brontes, it's more your cup of tea, but for me it was slightly too much and I just zoned out to enjoy the 'scenery' as if I was walking through the landscapes that were described. Rees, Jasper (29 December 2016). "To Walk Invisible review: the Brontë sisters brought to fizzing, furious life". The Telegraph . Retrieved 1 January 2017. This is a love letter to the people and places of Brontë country, but at the same time a fascinating bottom-up social, historical and political commentary on the landscape that shaped the life and writings of all the Brontës. Bramwell, a man who achieved in his life next to nothing, has two statues in his memory, in a landscape where a woman can change the world and be unknown. This sort of book adds to that sense of injustice.

I love Stewart’s anecdotal style. I love that we, the readers, are exploring this literary Mecca with him and his dog, Woolfie. I read several years ago the biography book Elizabeth Gaskell wrote about Charlotte Brontë . I am surprised the book is thought of by some people as an unfair view of the family especially towards Branwell. The book is titled, The Life of Charlotte Brontë . I want you to walk with me but to see through their eyes as I compare the times they lived in with the times we live in now. I really enjoyed learning more about the Bronte’s, and imagining them roaming about the moors, but I feel this book would have been a better read if it had been more carefully edited.At the end of the book, the hand drawn maps of these trails are included, with interesting titbits of information, and quirky pencil-drawn pictures alongside.

It is about places which had connections with the members of the Bronte family at various times in their lives, taking in Haworth, of course, Thornton, Hartshead, Scarborough, Liverpool, Hathersage, Luddenden Foot and others. Exploring the places, the landscapes, the buildings, the paths, talking to people as he walks – to locals and to other experts – Michael Stewart finds his way, as closely as it is possible to do – into the way the thoughts and feelings of the individual members of the Bronte family were influenced by these places, and uncovers some fascinating and partly unanswered questions about both the writings and the writers.Wheeler, Olivia (30 December 2016). "To Walk Invisible viewers left annoyed over 'bad sound quality' ". OK! Magazine . Retrieved 4 January 2017. BAFTA-winning writer Sally Wainwright, whose other credits include crime drama Happy Valley and comedy-drama Last Tango in Halifax, both set in Yorkshire, said she was "thrilled beyond measure" to have been asked by the BBC to "bring to life these three fascinating, talented, ingenious Yorkshire women". [6] Filming [ edit ] Really enjoyed this, being able to head out on long walks through Bronte country and beyond on long distances I'm not able to do at the moment. It's a wonderful mix of literary appreciation, literary history, memoir and slow-time travel (ie by foot), and mostly in Yorkshire!!! (ok, he has to head off into Lancashire and Cumbria a bit). What's not to love?