“She was of the stuff of which great men's mothers are made. She was indispensable to high generation, feared at tea-parties, hated in shops, and loved at crises.”

English novelist, poet and architect

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist, poet and architect. A Victorian realist, he wrote about the tensions of his time and looked closely at social change, especially in rural Britain. He is known for novels and poetry shaped by both realism and Romanticism, including the influence of William Wordsworth. His work is often sharply critical of Victorian society, and it pays close attention to the changing position of rural people in Britain, especially in his native South West England.