DORSET’S famous literary son Thomas Hardy was the toast of Dorchester as enthusiasts marked the anniversary of his birth.

The weekend was also a chance to celebrate another important date – 120 years since the publication of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, probably Hardy’s most famous novel.

Panned at the time of release and partly censored due to its criticism of social conventions, ‘Tess’ is now considered an important work of English literature with its moving and poetic language.

Appropriately enough, a Mayor of Casterbridge by the name of Tess added to the Hardy theme when she laid a wreath at the writer’s statue on Saturday.

Tess James, the new Mayor of Dorchester, was then invited to the Hardy Society’s celebratory dinner on Saturday night.

Society Secretary Mike Nixon said it was a very successful weekend.

The celebrations actually kicked off on Friday evening when audiences were treated to a premiere of the New Hardy Players’ production of Tess at the Corn Exchange.

There was a special treat at the end when one of the original Hardy Players, 105-year-old Norrie Woodhall, read a self-penned poem about the first time she saw Tess of the d’Urbervilles performed in 1924.

The New Hardy Players will be performing again in the Borough Gardens this Sunday.

Mr Nixon said 50 people joined a walk on Saturday around Marnhull in North Dorset, where Hardy set Tess. Later in the day the former chairman of the Hardy Society Mike Irwin, a retired professor of English at the University of Kent, gave the annual Hardy birthday lecture.

Sunday was reserved for a service at St Michael’s Church in Stinsford followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at Hardy’s grave.

Mr Nixon said: “As was mentioned over the weekend, what comes through with Hardy’s work is landscapes and when people read his books they want to see those landscapes. So he’s done a huge amount for tourism in Dorset.

“What I enjoy about his work is the fact that the issues he tackled are still relevant today.”