Programme 2026

This talk will recount how the book ‘Great Things – Hardy’s Hostelries’ came to be. From an idea in a pub during a casual conversation to travelling to almost fifty pubs across six counties which feature in Hardy’s works, this project was a labour of love involving much research and collation, not only of the elbow-bending kind! Hostelries, bars, inns and hotels play a pivotal role for Hardy’s characters throughout his novels, short stories and poems; from the iconic Peter’s Finger on Mixen Lane in The Mayor of Casterbridge to the Buck’s Head in Far From the Madding Crowd where Joseph Poorgrass suffers from ‘multiplying eye’. Our book is a celebration of Hardy’s pubs and their denizens, many still trading and able to be visited today.