Wessex the ensuing Norman Conquest of England, and as the Norman kings soon did away with the great earldoms of the late Anglo-Saxon period, 1066 marks the extinction of Wessex as a political unit. From the second edition (1989) of the "Oxford English Dictionary": Wessex 1. The name of a kingdom in south-west England in Anglo-Saxon times, used by Thomas Hardy as the name of the county in which his stories are set (corresponding approximately to Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire) and since used as a name for south-west England or this part of it. Wessex is often symbolised by a
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