Wessex Poems and Other Verses Wessex Poems and Other Verses Wessex Poems and Other Verses (often referred to simply as "Wessex Poems") is a collection of fifty-one poems set against the bleak and forbidding Dorset landscape by English writer Thomas Hardy. It was first published in 1898 by New York: Harper, , and contained a number of illustrations by the author himself. The collection met a broadly hostile reception, critics being accustomed to Hardy as a (controversial) writer of prose alone. Hardy himself was taken aback by the failure to recognise his dry humour, as in the (slightly bawdy) 'Bride-Night Fire'. On a more personal
Margaret Allan (romance author) Margaret Allan (romance author) Margaret Allan (1922 – 27 June 2017) was an author of romance novels from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. Her first success as an author came when she entered a short story for a "Yorkshire Evening Post" competition in 1973, which she won, and she began writing novels professionally in 1975. Allan continued writing well into her 80s, and during her long career published over 40 books. Many of her novels were set in her native county, including a cycle of four stories set in the fictional village of Nydd Beck. Allan described her works as "not