Thomas Hardy: Poems. Selected by Tom PaulinPaperback, 1 December 2005

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born in Dorset. He left school at sixteen to work as an apprentice for an architect who specialized in church restoration. He made his reputation as a novelist, and it wasn't until after the publication of his last novel, The Well-beloved, in 1897, that he dedicated himself to writing poetry.