AN AWARD-winning author is to become the first woman to pen a biography of Wessex writer Thomas Hardy.

Claire Tomalin has signed with Viking publishing to write the book after acclaimed works about Samuel Pepys and Charles Dickens.

Experts hope the biography will cast new light on the life of Hardy and boost his popularity and profile nationwide.

Furse Swann, chairman of the Thomas Hardy Society, said: "Claire Tomalin has impeccable credentials.

"I am very interested to see what she has to say that is new about Thomas Hardy."

Miss Tomalin's book about Pepys, called The Unequal Self, was voted Whitbread Book of the Year and was a bestseller.

Her book about the relationships between writer Charles Dickens and his friend Ellen Ternan, titled The Invisible Woman, won acclaim and was hailed as one of the best biographies of recent years.

Miss Tomalin has yet to write the Hardy book and it is not expected out until 2005.

Mr Swann said: "I would be very surprised if there was lots of new material.

"But I am sure she wouldn't embark upon it without having some new material rather than it just being a rehash of what is already known."