Kate Bush and Jeanette Winterson to commemorate the Brontë sisters in new public art installation

Musician Kate Bush, poet Carol Ann Duffy, writer Jackie Kay and novelist Jeanette Winterson are to celebrate the literary legacy of the Brontë sisters in a new public art installation, Brontë Stones. The installation features four new original works of writing, each of which addresses a different aspect of the Brontë legacy. Kate Bush, Carol Ann Duffy and Jackie Kay will each interpret the works of a Brontë sister while Jeanette Winterson will celebrate their legacy and global impact.

Curated by Bradford Literature Festival and originated by writer Michael Stewart, these texts will be engraved onto stones and placed in various locations in Yorkshire, like Thornton and Howarth, in order to connect the Brontë’s birthplace with the Brontë family parsonage. Visitors will be invited to embark on an eight-mile journey using hand-drawn maps by Yorkshire cartographer Christopher Goddard and will follow a route that the sisters themselves would have taken between locations.

The installation will be unveiled on Sunday 8 July by Michael Stewart who will lead visitors on a guided walking tour between the four stones for the first time. Kate Bush, who sung Wuthering Heights and is representing Emily Brontë in her art piece, says: “I am delighted to be involved in this project. Each sister being remembered by a stone in the enigmatic landscape where they lived and worked is a striking idea. Emily only wrote the one novel – an extraordinary work of art that has truly left its mark. To be asked to write a piece for Emily’s stone is an honour and, in a way, a chance to say thank you to her.”