Programme of Events 2026-2027
The Brussels Brontë Group organises events in Brussels throughout the year, including three mornings of talks. We organise occasional guided walks around Brontë places in Brussels. Our Reading Groups read 19th-century literature (not just the Brontës!). Information below.
Registration essential for all events. To register, please email
Talks
Saturday 17 October 2026 (morning)
An Irish-themed morning of talks, coinciding with the Irish presidency of the EU Council.
10.00 Talk by Nigel West
Nigel West is the patron and chief fundraiser of the recently-opened Brontë Birthplace in Thornton, Yorkshire. He will look at the story of the Birthplace and the legacy of the Brontës in Thornton. He will also talk about his family connection with Charlotte Brontë’s husband Arthur Bell Nicholls and the town where Nicholls grew up, Banagher in Ireland.
Nigel, who grew up in Leeds, Yorkshire, has a fascinating connection to one of the world’s most famous literary families. He is descended from a relative of Arthur Bell Nicholls. After Charlotte’s death in 1855 at the age of 28. Arthur moved back to his native Ireland, married a cousin and lived at Hill House, Banagher. Today a B&B called Charlotte’s Way, it was inherited by Nigel’s Irish-born father. In the early 20th century, Branwell Brontë’s famous painting of his sisters, now in the National Portrait Gallery, was discovered folded on top of a wardrobe in Hill House.
Inspired by this family link, Nigel became a patron and chief fundraiser for the campaign to buy and restore the terraced house in the village of Thornton, Bradford, where the four Brontë siblings were born before the family moved to Haworth. Thanks to a crowdfunding appeal and funds from Bradford UK City of Culture 2025, the house opened as a museum, B&B and centre for creative and educational activities in 2025.
Mindful of his Irish roots, Nigel has forged close links between the Brontë Birthplace in Thornton and the recently formed Banagher Brontë Group
11.30 Talk by Michael O’Dowd: ‘Charlotte Brontë: In Sickness and in Health’
Michael O’Dowd will talk about medicine during Charlotte Brontë’s lifetime, her various illnesses, her marriage, honeymoon and final illness and the debate as to whether or not she died of pregnancy-related complications. He will present evidence from correspondence and medical sources of the time that challenge the widely-accepted opinions about the nature of her illness and premature death.
Dr. Michael O’Dowd has had a distinguished career as an obstetrician and gynaecologist (he was Chair of the Irish Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) and has a PhD in medical history. He is the author of Charlotte Brontë: An Irish Odyssey, in which he follows Charlotte and Arthur’s honeymoon trail, and Charlotte Brontë: A Medical Casebook (2025). Writing with his daughter under the pseudonym Derry O’Dowd, he is also the author of The Scarlet Ribbon series of novels about a young surgeon working as a ‘man-midwife’ in the 18th century.
Charlotte Brontë: A Medical Casebook offers a fresh examination of Charlotte Brontë’s life through the lens of 19th-century medicine, exploring the novelist’s health for the first time using the medical thinking and practices of her own time.
Michael is married to Christine Patterson, who was part of the successful Donegal folk band The Pattersons in the 1960s and 70s. The couple have just brought out a musical tribute to the Brontës, a collection of ten songs called The Brontës: Love and Honour with lyrics by Michael and music and vocals by Christine with other musicians.
Michael has close links with the Banagher Brontë Group.
Sunday 15 November 2026
Starting at 18.30, Brussels Brontë Group 20th anniversary party at La bouche à oreille, Rue Félix Hap 11, 1040 Etterbeek. Members are invited to join a joyful celebration of 20 years of our group with a presentation on highlights in our history, various items of entertainment, and a buffet meal.
Christmas lunch and entertainment
Saturday 5 December 2026. This is a members-only event.
Talks
Saturday 20 February 2027 (morning)
Talk by Kristien Hemmerechts on ‘The sisterhood of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë’
We are all acquainted with Charlotte Brontë’s harsh judgment of Jane Austen as a writer (‘the Passions are perfectly unknown to her’; ‘I should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentlemen, in their elegant but confined houses’ etc). We may well empathise with Brontë’s need to distance herself from Austen. For contemporary readers, however, it is more rewarding to explore what these two formidable writers had and have in common than to dwell on their differences, to focus on their sisterhood rather than on their rivalry.
Kristien is the author of numerous novels, short stories and autobiographical writings. Until her retirement in October 2020 she lectured on English Literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Brussels campus) and Creative Writing at the Katholieke Universtiteit van Leuven and the Antwerp Drama School. She is the author of Ik ben Emma, a re-telling of Jane Austen’s Emma. She has written articles and given radio talks on the Brontës. In 2019 Kristien spoke to us on the subject of ‘A Belgian Reads the Brontës’.
Kristien is a returning speaker, having given us a talk in 2019.
Second speaker: to be determined
Talks
Saturday 17 April 2027 (morning)
10.00 Talk by Elly McCausland. She will speak about aspects of Villette and its heroine Lucy Snowe (details to follow).
Elly McCausland is an associate professor of English literature at Ghent University, where she has received media attention for incorporating the study of Taylor Swift’s lyrics in a master’s literature course. Her book Swift, Swifterature draws on that experience and explores the relationship between Swift and English literature. Elly previously taught in Denmark and Oslo. She is also a food writer and the author of the cookbook The Botanical Kitchen.
11.30 Talk by Lucasta Miller (subject to be decided).
Lucasta Miller, one of the most respected Brontë scholars, is a biographer and critic. She is the author of The Brontë Myth (2001), an examination of the countless myths that have grown up around the Brontës. She is also the author of a biography of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, L.E.L. The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Landon, the Celebrated “Female Byron”, and a biography of the poet John Keats entitled Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph (2021). She has contributed to a wide range of newspapers as a literary journalist. Lucasta Miller is a returning speaker, having given us a talk in 2018.
Guided walk
Sunday 18 April 2027
Guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels in the Place Royale area. Fee: €10 per person, payable in advance. Free for members of the Brussels Brontë Group. To register, email brusselsbrontegroup@gmail.com.
Summer lunch
The summer lunch will be on Saturday 12 June.
Reading group
Books on our list for 2026-2027
Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights
Jane Austen: Persuasion
Walter Scott: Ivanhoe
Elizabeth Gaskell: Mary Barton
Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
Charlotte Dacre: Zofloya; or, The Moor
Wilkie Collins: Armadale
For information, please email brusselsbrontegroup@gmail.com.
Guided walks
We organise occasional guided walks around places in Brussels associated with the Brontës’ stay in the city in 1842-43. The walks, which are in the Place Royale area, take from one and a half to two hours and are usually on Sundays, starting at 10.00.
To register or express an interest, please email brusselsbrontegroup@gmail.com.
