John Cowper Powys Thomas Hardy, and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset, part of Hardy's mythical Wessex. American scholar Richard Maxwell describes these four novels "as remarkably successful with the reading public of his time". "Maiden Castle", the last of the Wessex novels, is set in Dorchester, Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which he intended to be a "rival" to Hardy's "Mayor of Casterbridge". All the same, despite his indebtedness to the Victorian novel and his enthusiasm for Hardy and Walter Scott, as well as for lesser figures such as Ainsworth, Powys was clearly a modernist, and has affinities also with Fyodor
Westland Wessex all twin-engined; this was a major factor in the RAF's decision to reject the adoption of ex-FAA Wessex helicopters as the navy migrated to the newer Sea King. The Wessex was first used by the Royal Navy, which introduced the Wessex "HAS.1" to operational service in 1961. Having been satisfied by the favourable initial performance of the Wessex but seeking to improve its avionics and equipment, the Navy soon pressed for the development of the improved "HAS.3", which came into service in 1967. Operationally, younger models would be assigned to perform the key anti-submarine warfare and commando transport missions, while