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In honour of the 185th anniversary of Thomas Hardy's birth, a series of enlightening talks will be held this summer at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in partnership with the Thomas Hardy Society.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) remains one of Britain’s most cherished and widely read authors, his influence on literature and the imagination of his readers unparalleled. The talks will explore the multifaceted aspects of Hardy's life and work, delving into the influence of women in Hardy's life, his connection to imperial themes in the West Country, and his relationship with archaeology.
30 MAY, 6:00PM - 7:00PM | THE VICTORIAN HALL
Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses
Talk with Paula Byrne
Offering a fresh perspective on Thomas Hardy, acclaimed biographer Paula Byrne explores Hardy's life through the lens of the women who shaped him – his formidable mother, devoted sisters, first loves, long-suffering wives, and inspiring muses. Through their eyes, we see the man behind the novels, a figure both enthralled by and at odds with the women around him.
4 JULY, 6:00PM - 7:00PM | THE VICTORIAN HALL
Empire, the West Country and Thomas Hardy
Talk with Corinne Fowler and Rena Jackson
Professor Corinne Fowler’s talk covers the bewildering variety of Dorset’s colonial connections from transatlantic slavery and indentured labour to the African historical presence and penal colonies in modern day Australia and Tasmania. It will also show how Dorset’s agricultural history, particularly enclosure, the loss of common land and agricultural labour, is linked to the influx of imperial wealth during the colonial period.
Dr Rena Jackson’s talk considers literary responses to the Empire from a major Victorian West Country writer. The global flows of people and commodities in Thomas Hardy’s rural imaginary, Wessex, show how the region was entwined with the Empire through colonial adventure and exploration, finance capital, wars (land and sea), emigration and transportation, the East India Company and the Indian Civil Service
23 JULY, 11:00AM - 12:00PM | ALICE ELLEN COOPER DEAN COMMUNITY SPACE
‘The Shadow on the Stone’: Hardy and Archaeology
Talk with Mark Damon Chutter
Mark Damon Chutter will take you on a journey to consider the importance Thomas Hardy placed on archaeology within Dorchester (Casterbridge) and Fordington (Durnover) and will show how the significance of the past seeps into Hardy’s fiction and poetry.
About the Speakers
Paula Byrne is the author of eight highly acclaimed works of non-fiction, including Hardy Women: Mother, Sisters, Wives, Muses, a 2024 literary highlight in four national newspapers. Her biography The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym was named ‘Book of the Year’ in multiple publications and featured as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, while The Genius of Jane Austen was a New York Times Editors’ Pick. Her bestselling Kick: The True Story of Kick Kennedy was optioned for dramatization by Apple TV+, and she also wrote the tie-in book for the award-winning film Belle. The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things, published for the Pride and Prejudice bicentenary, was a Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller and a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, while Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead explored the aristocratic family that inspired Brideshead Revisited and was serialized in Vanity Fair in the U.S.
Corinne Fowler is Professor of Colonialism and Heritage in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. In 2020 Corinne co-authored an audit of peer-reviewed research about National Trust properties’ connections to empire, which galvanized the heritage sector to address its colonial stories and became a major media story. The report won the Museums and Heritage Special Recognition Award, 2022 and an Eastern Eye Award 2023. Before this, Corinne directed Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted, a child-led history and writing project (2018-2022), resulting in a book of commissioned writing called Colonial Countryside (Peepal Tree Press, July 2024) which was funded by Arts Council England. Corinne’s new book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain was published on 2 May 2024 by Penguin Allen Lane.
Rena Jackson is a long-time member of the Thomas Hardy Society and serves on the editorial advisory board for the Society’s journals (Hardy Society Journal and Thomas Hardy Journal). Her recent book The Imperial World-System and Cultures of Dissent in Thomas Hardy’s Fiction was published in October 2024 with Palgrave Macmillan. The book is based on her PhD thesis, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and completed at the University of Manchester in 2018. She has taught and trained students at all degree levels in higher education, and co-organised major public-facing events themed around asylum, refuge and migration. Her many publications have appeared in postcolonial and Hardy journals, as well as in the volume of essays Thomas Hardy in Context (Cambridge UP, 2013).
Mark Damon Chutter is the Chairman and Academic Director of the Thomas Hardy Society. He has published papers in the Thomas Hardy Journal and for the Times Educational Supplement (TES). He has been teaching for over 30 years as a Drama and English specialist and was shortlisted for the TES’s ‘Most Innovative Teacher of the Year’ and ‘Teacher of the Year’ awards.
These events are supported by Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in partnership with the Thomas Hardy Society.
Event location map
Society calendar
Upcoming events
2025/2026 THS Dates for your diary
From 04/07/2025 until 01/08/2026
All day event
All day event
Empire, the West Country and Thomas Hardy
On 04/07/2025
Starts 18:00 until 19:00
Starts 18:00 until 19:00
THS Fundraiser with Lord & Lady Fellowes of West Stafford
On 05/07/2025
Starts 12:45 until 16:15
Starts 12:45 until 16:15
The Thomas Hardy Society Annual General Meeting
On 19/07/2025
Starts 18:00 until 19:30
Starts 18:00 until 19:30
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