The love and loss of one of Dorset's most famous writers was explored at a recent book launch in Dorchester. 

Andrew Norman read and discussed his latest book Thomas Hardy and the Death of Emma - What the writings reveal’ at Waterstones on South Street, Dorchester. 

It was organised by the Thomas Hardy Society and Mr Norman was interviewed by society chairman and academic director Mark Chutter. 

The talk delved into Hardy's marriage, discussing how he became estranged from his first wife Emma and how he coped with his bereavement. 

Mr Norman said: "Hardy experienced the different stages of inner grief in his life with Emma’s passing in 1912.

"The journey returning to Boscastle to write this elegiac love poetry about his first wife while accompanied by his second wife Florence is intriguing."

Mark Chutter added: "There is a fascination within Hardy studies around the life and his estrangement from Emma -does this add to or overshadow the fiction or are the life and the fiction inextricably linked?

"Was her creativity as a wife of a famous author stifled residing in the attic space at Max Gate?

"My thanks to Andrew Norman and to Waterstones of Dorchester for hosting this event."