British regional literature of London and the south of England. John Cowper Powys has been seen as a successor to Thomas Hardy, and "Wolf Solent", "A Glastonbury Romance" (1932), along with "Weymouth Sands" (1934) and "Maiden Castle" (1936), are often referred to as his Wessex novels. As with Hardy's novels, the landscape plays a major role in Powys's works, and an elemental philosophy is important in the lives of his characters. Powys's first novel "Wood and Stone" was dedicated to Thomas Hardy. "Maiden Castle", the last of the Wessex novels, is set in Dorchester, Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which he intended to be
Westland Wessex the Royal Navy. For British production, it was re-engined with a single Napier Gazelle turboshaft engine, first flying in that configuration on 17 May 1957. The lighter (by 600 lb) Gazelle engine meant some redistribution of weight. The first Westland-built Wessex serial "XL727", designated a "Wessex HAS.1", first flew on 20 June 1958. The first production Wessex HAS1 were delivered to Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA) in early 1960; the Wessex was the first helicopter operated by the FAA to be purpose-designed from scratch as an anti-submarine platform. In service, the Wessex was found to be a major improvement