The Joy of Six 1479

Richard Reich argues that employers will not share the gains from AI unless they are made to: "If the five-day workweek with five days of pay shrinks to four days with four days of pay, and then to three, and to two, and perhaps one, AI will supplant most people’s work and drive down our take-home pay. We may see a dazzling array of products and services spawned by AI, but few of us will be able to buy them."

"In opposing these children’s homes, neighbours resort to language about children in care that they would not use for other groups of people, such as same-sex couples or people who are not white. Children in care are trouble makers, they complain; they bring down house prices, they are not from our community, they make too much noise." Martin Borrow asks why proposals to open new homes, which often for only two or three children, are met with such hostility.

"This part of south-west England, much of which is currently under water, used to be known as the 'land of the summer people'. Historically, frequent flooding was the main reason for purely seasonal occupation in this area bordered by the Bristol Channel and the Mendip, Quantock and Blackdown Hills." Jess Neumann sets out the threat that climate change poses to Somerset.

Lottie Wood explores gender fluidity, rural landscapes and the Women’s Land Army, introducing us to E.M. Barraud's memoir Set My Hand Upon the Plough.

"It is deeply troubling that the drive of Brontë’s Isabella, a survivor of domestic abuse, has been reread to dramatically absolve her abuser. The girl sobbing behind me as the credits rolled attests to the success of this exoneration. Really, she should be crying over the scripting of violent abuse as consensual play." Anna Drury is concerned by Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights.

Richard Elliott celebrates a new box set that brings together live and studio recordings of the Scottish folk singer, guitarist and songwriter Dick Gaughan.

Ponden Hall: Sitting round a hearth with the Brontë sisters

Ponden Hall, which can be found below the village of Stanbury near Haworth, has been suggested as one of the inspirations for Thrushcross Grange in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and also for her sister Anne's Wildfell Hall.

What is certain is that the Brontës knew the Heatons, the family who owned Ponden Hall, and would visit them to make use of their extensive library. And, as everyone is talking about Wuthering Heights, I have been thinking about the place.

Ponden Hall was put up for sale in 2020, so you can see the interior in a Country Life article from that year. When I knew it – I had short breaks there twice in the 1990s – it had a more bohemian vibe, but I still recognise the place. I remember the stone-flagged floors in particular.

The first time I stayed was with a couple of colleagues from work, and I think it was in a pub in Haworth that I learnt to drink gin and tonic. My memories of the event are necessarily a little hazy, but I do recall that we walked to Wycoller and back by the reservoirs the next day, so I can't have been too bad. I also remember visiting Bingley Five Rise and seeing birds nesting in the lock gates.

My second visit to Ponden Hall was with some people from Leicester Friends of the Earth. I was never a member, but I was a sort of Friend of Friends of the Earth. Also staying that time were an American and his wife, and he turned out to be an expert on the Brontës.

As we sat in front of the open fire, he told us about the sisters using the library here, and then added: "They probably sat round this very hearth." We all shivered violently.