Other lives: Teacher, academic and writer with specialisms in Thomas Hardy and the operas of Benjamin Britten
February 2024
Brief letters
Waiting for Godot to send in more clowns
Ockham’s Razor: Tess review – circus spin finds light and laughter in Thomas Hardy’s tale
January 2024
Hardy Women by Paula Byrne review – where love and fiction collide
Book of the day
Hardy Women by Paula Byrne review – brilliant writer of women, very bad husband
May 2023
Brief letters
The monarchy is still playing with its toys after all these years
In defence of Thomas Hardy’s treatment of women
April 2023
Thomas Hardy’s ‘great’ Henchard is in fact a horrendous misogynist
What did I learn from Thomas Hardy? Great characters don’t need a back story
Adrian Chiles
February 2023
Top 10s
Top 10 cads in fiction
Dangerously handsome young men carelessly ruining women’s lives are a rarer breed than they were. But their hatefulness still makes compelling reading
January 2023
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Poem of the week: Self-Unconscious by Thomas Hardy
A curiously jaunty account of the bright life of nature a man misses while wrapped up in his plans
December 2022
The Guardian view on the death of the Hardy Tree: a legend uprooted
Editorial: An ash surrounded by gravestones in an ancient churchyard reveals humanity’s urge to tell its own stories through trees
Brief letters
Reluctance to clean is not limited to men
Brief letters: Housework and gender | Navigational errors | Extraterrestrial researchers | Long reads book | Hardly hardy | Cartoon praise
Gravestone-encircled ‘Hardy Tree’ falls in London
The tree became a powerful symbol of life among death after the novelist and poet stacked gravestones around its base in the 1860s
June 2022
Country diary
Country diary: We rise and fall with the treecreepers outside
Yr Elenydd, Ceredigion: In a tiny chapel I sit among the devout, one eye on the window
May 2022
Book of the day
The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry review – Thomas Hardy in mourning
A remarkable portrait of the remorse that followed a difficult marriage, and gave birth to great poetry
April 2022
Top 10s
Top 10 difficult marriages in fiction
Whether they induce schadenfreude or pangs of recognition, mismatched couples have inspired brilliant novels by authors from Evelyn Waugh to Jean Rhys
March 2022
And did those feet: 10 walks inspired by famous poets
Matching rich verse with great scenery, these strolls follow in the footsteps of some of our greatest wordsmiths, from William Blake to Carol Ann Duffy
December 2021
Top 10s
Top 10 Christmas poems
Poets from Thomas Hardy to TS Eliot and Wendy Cope articulate the wonder – and dread – of the festive season
October 2021
The importance of using the right language
Letters: Kevin Harper on the need to use plain English, and Peter Branston on new language and Thomas Hardy
