HAWORTH, England — For anyone wanting to immerse him or herself in emerald beauty of the English countryside, the quaint Yorkshire town of Haworth is a perfect destination, but for literary fans of authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë, it is a must.

The hometown of the literary sisters most well known for Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, is nestled between undulating green pastures and wild moorlands.

The town, which according to the Visitor Information Centre received 160,000 visitors in 2010, retains it’s 19th century charm thanks to a cobbled main street dotted with shops, tea rooms and pubs. A stroll through the center lends stunning views of the surrounding countryside, known for its many hiking and cycling trails and a steam railroad.

For those wanting to pay homage to the Brontë legacy, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the hike to Top Withers should be top on the list.

The parsonage, the Brontë family’s home from1820 to 1861 where the sisters lived, wrote and died, looks as it would have when Emily and Charlotte composed what have since become classic works of English literature. The museum features manuscripts, letters and family possessions.

“If they’re at all interested in the Brontës, you’ve got to pop into the parsonage,” said Ray Tallon, a museum assistant who lives in Haworth.

“It’s like visiting London and seeing Big Ben,” he said, noting that the museum draws visitors from as far away as Brazil, Russia and Japan, both casual tourists to the English countryside as well as PhD students and researchers on pilgrimages to the Brontë landscape.

Visitors can also enter the church where the sisters are buried and the town’s old apothecary. It sells medicines, candy, bath salts and other old fashioned products as it would have in Charlotte and Emily’s day.

After obtaining a map from the Visitor Information Centre on main street, visitors can hike to Top Withers, the location believed to have inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The six-mile loop crosses the windy moorlands, the setting of Emily’s novel, and although difficult at times, the hike is worth the challenge.

The first two miles lead to the Brontë stone chair, waterfall and bridge, a location where the sisters came to reflect.

“It’s a good place to go and clear your mind and get in tune with the Brontës,” Tallon said.

The final one and a half miles to Top Withers is a steep trek up dry, rocky moors. The view from the top is as serene as it is forlorn and isolating, and plunges hikers into the novel’s landscape, with Haworth completely erased from view.

“You’ve got to go and see. It gives you a good sense of how desolate it would have been,” said Tallon.

Along the trail last week were Pam and Ken Hart of Rotherham in South Yorkshire.

“It’s the wildness of them and the romance,” she said, explaining the intrigue of Wuthering Heights.

Also along the trail were Margaret Hanley and Margaret Collier two friends from Bolton, England.

“We want to be outside,” Collier said, recalling the first time, 51 years ago, she hiked the trail to Top Withers with her classmates after reading the book and acting in a school production of Jane Eyre.

The moorland trail was also dotted with new groups of students as well as mountain bikers, runners and picnicking families.

In the center of town tourists enjoyed refreshments and browsed shops including Venables and Bainbridge Books, Haworth’s second-hand bookstore.

Douglas Bainbridge, the shop’s co-owner who has lived in Haworth for 27 years, said his customers aren’t always looking for Brontë literature.

“There’s more to Howorth than the Brontës,” he said, recommending the steam railway, plethora of hiking and biking trails and proximity to larger cities like Leeds and Manchester.

He also recommend The Fleece, a Haworth pub frequented by locals and travelers alike. He said the locals’ keenness for a pint stems from the town’s long history in the textile and quarrying industries.

Alison Dean of the Haworth Tourist Information Centre also said the pubs are an integral part of Haworth’s many themed weekends throughout the year, which include 1940’s weekend, 1960’s weekend, Christmas and Halloween weekends and Yorkshire Day in July.

“It’s all in good fun and everybody gets together and has a drink,” said Dean.

To partake in the other English drinking tradition – tea time – locals recommend The Stirrup, a tea room and restaurant located on the main street. It offers tea, coffee, hot chocolate and a selection of homemade scones and cakes as well as hot meals and sandwiches.

The Fleece Inn and Pub, which serves hearty traditional English breakfasts and meals throughout the day, also has a full bar menu and an extensive selection of English cask ales.

Bed and breakfasts line the main road and recommendations can be found at websites such as bronte-country.com.

Troublesome news out of the UK this morning as rumors point to Activision selling or closing off Bizarre Creations, the developer behind games like Geometry Wars, Project Gotham Racing and moist recently James Bond 007: Bloodstone. Reportedly, over 200 employees were given 90-day notices and informed of the company’s doubtful future  yesterday.

“Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations, the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly,” Activision said in a written statement. “Although we made a substantial investment in creating a new IP, Blur, it did not find a commercial audience. Bizarre is a very talented team of developers, however, because of the broader economic factors impacting the market, we are exploring our options regarding the future of the studio, including a potential sale of the business.”

Stick with Blast for more on this breaking story.

Gordon Brown has resigned as British prime minister, making way for a coalition government led by Britain’s new prime minister, David Cameron, to take the reigns of British parliament.

After announcing his resignation outside 10 Downing Street today, Brown and his wife spent about 15 minutes at Buckingham Palace, after which a statement was released citing the queen’s acceptance of Brown’s decision.

Earlier today, talks on forming a new government between Brown’s Labour party and Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats broke down. After narrowly winning the May 6 election, Cameron’s Conservatives reached out to Clegg’s party in hopes of forming a coaltion and avoiding a hung parliament, the first since 1974 and the second since World War II.

In order to take full control of parliament in the UK, the winning party must garner 326 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. A coalition between the Conservatives (who won 306 seats) and the Liberal Democrats (who won 57 seats) would help the country avoid a hung parliament.

Oddly enough, just months ago, no one in the UK could have predicted the fate of the British government would lay in the hands of the 43-year-old Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

Cameron, speaking outside 10 Downing Street, said he aims to create a “full and proper” coalition with Clegg’s Liberal Democrats.

“I believe that is the best way to get the strong government that we need, decisive government that we need today,” said Cameron in his first speech as leader. ”I love this country and think it’s best days lie ahead. Now we need to confront our problems and take difficult decisions.”

Infinity Ward and Activision have done the impossible.

Britain’s Entertainment Retailers Association reported its 2009 findings today and named Modern Warfare 2 bigger than wizard boy Harry Potter.

According to the association, Modern Warfare 2 moved 2.9 million copies in 2009, while Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince sold only 2.1.

You might think the folks across the pond only sip tea and watch football (soccer), but more of them apparently enjoy shooting eachother in the face and magical shenanigans.

1. COD: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision) — 2,926,637 game
2. Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince (Warner) — 2,193,700 video
3. FIFA 10 (EA) — 2,155,697 game
4. Quantum of Solace (Fox) — 2,040,229 video
5. Twilight (E1 Ent) — 1,815,543 video
6. Susan Boyle: I Dreamed A Dream (Sony) — 1,714,369 music
7. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) — 1,488,797 game
8. Lady GaGa: The Fame (Universal) — 1,458,289 music
9. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox) — 1,383,838 video
10. Transformers Revenge Fallen (Paramount) — 1,362,020 video

Source: CVG

Spelunking goddess Lara Croft, famous for her perfectly-curved body and gun-wielding prowess, will have a street in the United Kingdom.

Has a street named after her now.

In December the town of Derby decided it needed a name for one of its new streets and so, like any reasonable establishment, put the vote to the mighty Internet.

The road connecting Osmaston Road and Burton will not be known as Lara Croft Way. Awesome.

Derby Councillor Lucy Care said the 89 percent landslide victory was due to the fact Core Design, the team responsible for the original Lara Croft games is based in Derby, but really, when a vote is put to the Internet, and its gaming-happy contingency, did you expect anything else?

Source: Joystiq

Video games raked in more cash than movies in the UK last year according to data collected by the Daily Telegraph.

The niche-market that gaming once was across the pond is now a more mainstream, and much to publisher’s enjoyment, profitable endeavor.

Fun for the entire family? You betcha!

According to GFK Chart-Track, video games took in £1.73 billion since September 2009 and movies amassed only £1 billion, despite the strongest cinema showing in three decades, and £198 million on DVD and Blu-Ray discs, in that same time.

According to the report, only television, and its subscription-based  models of payment, took in more over the same span of time.

Tom Watson, former Cabinet Minister and self-proclaimed gamer, said:

“Like anything digital, Parliament has a very narrow view of video games. Too many politicians think video games are played by teenage boys staying up all night shooting things in their bedroom.

“And yes there are plenty of those, but there also a huge range of people of many different ages who love playing games. The industry has matured over the last decade, and so too have gamers.”

What’s most amazing? These figures do not include that of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the largest release in the UK since FIFA.

Source: GamePolitics

Frontier Games today announced that their Lostwinds sequel, “Winter of the Melodias” will debut in the United Kingdom tomorrow, October 9.

Nintendo of Europe welcomes the game to the WiiWare service and makes it the 100th entry on the download spot available in the UK.

David Braben, Frontier’s Chairman and Founder, said: “We launched the original LostWinds game on WiiWare with much anticipation, as it was such an exciting and new way to access games. We are now thrilled to be able to mark the 100th game launch on WiiWare with LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias.”

We sure loved the original, and you must have to, as it went on to win awards and remain atop the best-seller list on WiiWare, and the sequel looks even better.

In the sequel you control the seasons of Mistralis, and can instantly change a hot and sunny afternoon to a snowy blizzard, and of course the other way too.

LostWinds: Winter Of The Melodias will be available tomorrow in the UK at 1000 Wii Points and other regions later this year.

Quick thought.

I’m on vacation right now in England, currently staying across the University of Oxford, the alma mater of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair is currently at the center of some controversy surrounding the reason behind the Lockerbie bomber’s recent release.

During a tour this morning I was reminded of an interesting fact. For those who don’t know, Blair, during his days at Oxford, co-founded, sang and played guitar for a band called the Ugly Rumours. Quite ironic that now he himself is the subject of some “ugly rumours” that may just prove to be true.

Those rumors, that Blair’s administration negotiated a deal with Libya to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi in exchange for access to Libyan oil, are at this point not based on any hard factual evidence.

Blair and Britain have denied any such deal.

I’m sure Blair, while imitating Mick Jagger on stage at Oxford, never thought such an irony would arise.

End thought.

Following in the footsteps of the guy who threw the shoe at Bush, a man at Cambridge University threw a runner at Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao during a speech there, though his aim was a lot worse, he missed Jiabao by about 30 feet, according to the Times.

The man blew a whistle during the speech, causing Jiabao to look up, after which he began yelling.‚ Police escorted the offender out of the hall, however not before he shouted “how can you listen to the lies he’s telling?” into TV cameras. The man, who is not Chinese, also called Jiabao a dictator before he was removed from the hall.

Witnesses describe the man as a “goateed European in his 20s or 30s speaking foreign-accented English.”‚ 

The altercation took place on the final day of Jiabao’s three-day visit to the UK. Jiabao spoke with Prime Minister Gordon Brown about a possible increase in trade between the two countries.

Human rights groups picketed outside the university before the speech, protesting China’s treatment of Tibet.

On a completely unrelated note, I wrote a post yesterday about some sea explorers who uncovered the remains of a 1744 shipwreck in the English Channel.‚ 

Today, I got an email from a woman named Shelley Kapitulik, who works for a PR firm in New York called Trylon SMR. She informed me that the team who uncovered the shipwreck was the subject of a documentary, which caused some stir in the archeology community.

Apparently Odyssey Marine’s methods of exploration raise some ethical questions in the archeology community.

She invited me to give her a call to find out more, which I will. So that’ll be coming soon.