A PACKED programme is planned as part of this year's Bronte Festival of Women's Writing.

Nineteen events will be held during the weekend, September 23 to 25, at the Bronte Parsonage Museum in Haworth.

And in a first for the festival, most activities will be available to either attend in person or watch online.

Influential female authors, poets and writers from this country and across the globe will feature.

The theme is Defying Expectations, which ties in with an exhibition of the same name currently running in the parsonage.

Co-created by historical consultant Dr Eleanor Houghton, the exhibition focuses on – and reimagines – the garments and accessories worn by Charlotte Bronte.

Festival highlights will include a performance by musicians, composers and songwriters Alexandra Braithwaite, Sophie Galpin and Beckie Wilkie of their soundtrack to the 2020 Royal Exchange Theatre production of Wuthering Heights – followed by a question-and-answer session.

Also, there will be a poetry reading by Monika Radojevic – winner of Stormzy’s #Merky Books New Writers' Prize. She will read from her collection, Teeth in the Back of My Neck.

And TV chef Rosemary Shrager will give a step-by-step cooking tutorial centred on a recipe inspired by the Brontes. Resource packs will be sent to participants cooking from home.

People who can't attend events in person will be able to see some streamed live via Zoom or YouTube, or in other cases have recordings emailed.

Just three events will be in-person only – two creative workshops and a ‘coffee chat’ with Nicky Peacock, the parsonage’s newest writer in residence, who will answer questions about her work and offer advice.

Sassy Holmes, programme officer at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, said: "We’re incredibly excited for this year’s festival. The line-up is full of amazing and talented women who aren't afraid to speak their mind and have been ‘defying expectations’ in their own individual ways for years.

"It’s brilliant too that we are now able to share these events with Bronte and literary fans wherever they are in the world, and I hope audiences will learn from – and be inspired by – these incredible women."

Tickets for events range in price from £3 to £10, or weekend 'bundles' are available – £55 including admission to all in-person events and to the museum, or £40 for all online events.

For details of the full festival programme and more ticket information, visit bronte.org.uk/whats-on.