A NEW book on Thomas Hardy asks why his marriage was so 'problematical'.

The famed Dorset author, whose birthplace was in Higher Bockhampton and later lived at Max Gate in Dorchester, referred to his marriage to Emma Gifford in many of his writings. 

Author Andrew Norman takes a closer look at Hardy's poems in his new book Thomas Hardy and the Death of Emma.

In his early poems, the names of several locations in North Cornwall are mentioned, this being the very same place which featured in Hardy’s courtship of Emma Gifford, who was to become his first wife.

In many of his poems, Hardy referred to a certain romantic courtship, a marriage which became progressively more problematical, and finally to a bereavement in which a man loses his wife.

Former Dorset GP Mr Norman discovers what these writings reveal about the couple's marriage, asking 'why was Hardy so inconsolable when Emma died, given that the couple had become virtually estranged?'

He uses his background in medicine to gain insight into fathoming the depth’s of Hardy’s mindset as a bereaved person.

READ MORE: Dorset Museum offers free Thomas Hardy tour

He said: "The poems raise certain questions.

"Given that Hardy and Emma gradually drifted apart so that in the end they lived mainly separate lives, albeit under the same roof, why was he so grief-stricken when she died, bearing in mind that their marriage was so unsatisfactory?"

The Far From the Madding Crowd author's different stages of grief are examined, thanks to the work of Swiss-US psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, and US expert on grieving and loss, David Kessler.

Mr Norman said: "Finally, how did Hardy survive and come out the other side, and can his experience be a guide to others who find themselves alone and bereft after losing their partner?"

Andrew Norman was born in Newbury, Berkshire, UK in 1943.

Having been educated at Thornhill High School, Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Midsomer Norton Grammar School, Somerset, UK, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, he qualified in medicine at the Radcliffe Infirmary. He has two children Bridget and Thomas, by his first wife.

From 1972 to 83, Andrew worked as a general practitioner in Poole, Dorset, before a spinal injury cut short his medical career. He is now an established writer. Andrew married his second wife, Rachel, in 2005.

Thomas Hardy and the Death of Emma can be bought from Pen and Sword books here