October Talk: Curator of the Hardy's Wessex Exhibition

 We  were very fortunate to be able to welcome Harriet Still, one of the UK's leading experts on Thomas Hardy for our October talk. She curated the 2022 Hardy celebration that took place at Dorset Museum, Poole Museum, The Salisbury Museum and Wiltshire Museum, and has now travelled to Museum and Art Swindon.

 She studied English and History at the University of York before managing Hardy's Cottage on behalf of the National Trust. Since this introduction to Hardy, over a decade ago, she has sat on the Council of Management for the Thomas Hardy Society and the Hardy Country steering group, as well as acted in various Hardy productions with the New Hardy Players and played in the Hardy folk band Tatterdemalion. Interestingly Tatterdemalion are holding a Ceilidl tonight at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester. Wish I was nearer Dorchester, sounds like a very interesting band.

Harriet as the Curator of the exhibition and a leading expert on Hardy was able to talk us through his life through the artefacts still in existence, many of which are in the exhibition.

Harriet Still seen below was able to give us a fascinating insight into Thomas Hardy and answered an impressive number of diverse questions after the talk. 

I have been a lifelong admirer of Hardy since I read many of his works in my teens and was captivated by the 1967 film version of Far From the Madding Crowd starring Julie Christie and Terence Stamp. There has been at least one other version since that one, but I don't think anyone could surpass Stamp's depiction of Sergeant Troy.

Are we in Wessex in Swindon? Of course it's a mythical place, but nice to know we're within Wessex.

I realise these photos taken from the screen in the Council Chamber aren't very good, but give a flavour of topics covered. This one depicts urban Wessex, rural Wessex, ancient Wessex and coastal Wessex.

Hardy was born in 1840  in Dorchester and lived until he was 87, in that time he wrote 14novels, several short stories and thousands of poems. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature 25 times and was considered an excellent writer.

Hardy's Cottage can be visited to find out more about where he grew up. There's a great blog post by BaldHiker with many excellent photos and interesting information here.

Hardy had a social conscience as can be appreciated from reading his books, he was interested in equality for women, looking after the poor, employment rights and improving the lot of everyone.

If you haven't already seen the Hardy exhibition at Museum and Art Swindon on the first floor of the civic Offices in Euclid St, it's on until the 8th of February this year. And did you know how the shepherd uses a shepherd's crook to catch sheep?