THE BRONTË Society has released full details of events for the next six months to celebrate Emily Brontë’s birthday.

A packed programme of activities for the 200th anniversary will centre on Haworth and in particular the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

Several will involve the personalities chosen to champion Wuthering Heights writer Emily during 2018: actress and former model Lily Cole, folk group The Unthanks, poet Patience Agbabi, artist Kate Whiteford and teen blogger Lucy Powrie.

Special events over the next 12 months are part of the five-year Brontë 200 Festival, and follow festivals devoted to the bicentennials of Charlotte and Branwell Brontë held in 2016 and 2017.

Brontë Society executive director Kitty Wright said: “Emily’s bicentenary is a particularly exciting chapter in our five-year bicentennial festival and we look forward to celebrating this most enigmatic of the Brontë siblings with audiences in Yorkshire and across the world.

“The year 2018 will also see us enter the Arts Council’s National Portfolio for the first time and we look forward to building on the partnerships we have developed during our celebrations of Charlotte in 2016 and Branwell in 2017.”

When the Brontë Parsonage Museum reopens on February 1 it will host a year-long exhibition entitled Making Thunder Roar: Emily Brontë.

For the exhibition, the Brontë Society has invited several well-known Emily admirers to share their own fascination with the author’s life and work.

There will be specially-commissioned contributions from Maxine Peake, Sally Wainwright, Caryl Phillips and Helen Oyeyemi, in a thought-provoking selection of Emily’s possessions, writing and artwork, as well as some of the well-loved household objects she used daily.

Visitors to the Brontë Parsonage Museum will also have the opportunity to see the iconic portrait of Emily with Charlotte and Anne, The Brontë Sisters, which was painted by her brother, Branwell Brontë.

The painting will return to Haworth for a special three-month loan from the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Visit bronte.org.uk or call 01535 642323 for special events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, including a detailed guide to the first six months.