THS Bloomsbury Group Literary Weekend

From Friday 31st October 2025 until Sunday 2nd November 2025
Starts 12:00 until 14:00
The Depot, Pinwell Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2JS.

Charleston Farmhouse, view from the pond, photo taken by Andy Scott

THS Bloomsbury Group Literary Weekend in Sussex

TWO PLACES NOW AVAILABLE

The Thomas Hardy Society are excited to announce a weekend of visits and lectures exploring the links between Thomas Hardy and The Bloomsbury Group, with a focus on Virginia Woolf. The weekend will be based in lecture facilities at ‘The Depot’, Lewes, East Sussex.

Highlights will include visits to Virginia Woolf’s Sussex home, Monk’s House at Rodmell, and Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s retreat, Charleston Farmhouse at Firle.

Speakers will include: Rachel Worth, Emerita Professor at The Arts University Bournemouth in coversation with Mark Damon Chutter on ‘The role and representation of clothing in Virginia Woolf’s novels and some comparisons made with representations in Hardy’s novels’, Mark Damon Chutter, Chair of The Thomas Hardy Society, on ‘Virginia Woolf: The Dreadnought Hoax’ and Dr Tony Fincham on ‘Creativity and mental Illness in Relation to Thomas Hardy and Virginia Woolf’.

There will also be an exploration of Virginia Woolf’s tribute to Thomas Hardy written shortly after his death in 1928 and also her diary entry written after her visit to see Thomas and Emma Hardy at Max Gate.

Cost: £160 per person to include all lectures, transport to visits and entry to Monk’s House, Charleston Farmhouse and Charleston galleries at Firle and Lewes.

Once booked the fee in non-refundable but is transferable.

Itinerary

Friday 31st October 2025

12.00-13.30 Welcome and registration at ‘The Depot’.

13.30-16.30 Mini bus to Monk’s House, Rodmell, to visit Virginia Woolf’s House. Break.

17.30-18.30 Introductory lecture at The Depot. Break.

19.30 Dinner at local restaurant (Paid separately).

Saturday 1st November

09.30 Mini bus to Firle to visit Charleston Farmhouse, garden and galleries.

13.30 Return to The Depot. Break.

14.30 -16.00 Afternoon lectures and workshops. Break.

17.00-18.30 Keynote Speaker to be announced.

19.30 Dinner at local restaurant (Paid separately).

Sunday 2nd November

10.00 Creative writing event led by Lucy Brown and Mark Damon Chutter.

OR Self-guided tour of historic Lewes.

11.30 Visit to the art galleries at ‘Charleston in Lewes’.

12.30 Final gathering for lunch and farewells

TWO PLACES NOW AVAILABLE

BOOK NOW

We hope you can join THS members and other literary enthusiasts for our Bloomsbury Group Literary Weekend break in Lewes, Sussex. A traditional English market town, Lewes is also the county town of East Sussex and the administrative centre for the region.

Monk's House is the home of Virginia & Leonard Woolf, where Virginia's writing lodge is still in the garden. Charleston Farmhouse was the home of artists Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister) & Duncan Grant, where John Maynard Keynes wrote much of his classic work, The Economic Consequences of the Peace in 1919. Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf’s father was Hardy’s publisher for Far from the Madding Crowd and Virginia Woolf also visited Hardy at Max Gate. When Hardy died in January 1928, she published an essay called Thomas Hardy’s Novels in the Times Literary Supplement as a eulogy.

The Bloomsbury Group was formed by British writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists, such as Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, Vanessa Bell, and Lytton Strachey. Their works and outlook deeply influenced literature and modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality.