Actor to head Hardy society

9:28am Thursday 6th December 2007

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OSCAR-WINNER Julian Fellowes is set to boost Thomas Hardy's standing as Dorchester's most famous son.

The actor, director and writer becomes the Thomas Hardy Society's president from next year.

He said: "I'm very flattered to be asked. My ambition is to increase Dorchester's enjoyment of Hardy's work as a novelist and poet.

"I want the people of Dorchester to know even more about him and his work."

Mr Fellowes, who lives at West Stafford House which Hardy knew well and featured in his Wessex writings, said he also wants to see a strong link forged with Bournemouth University.

He said: "We have only one university in Dorset and I would like to see a relationship built between it and the Thomas Hardy Society."

Mr Fellowes is an honorary doctor of letters at Bournemouth University.

He ranks Hardy among the cream of world class novelists.

He said: "He is one of the great, great authors - up there with Dickens and Tolstoy.

"He is the star of Dorchester. It's marvellous that the county town boasts a world star as its own boy. I studied the 19th century novel as part of my English literature degree at Cambridge and I feel I owe it to Hardy to do my part as president of the society.

"The difficulty with Hardy is that he had a very black view of the world. He was extremely thoughtful and interesting and not cheery.

"He was a complicated character and when you look at his unhappy marriages they were like a novel."

Mr Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of the film Gosford Park, said he believed television would be the best medium for adaptations of Hardy's novels.

His favourite Hardy novel is Far From The Madding Crowd.

He said: "It nearly came to me for an adaptation but then all went quiet as these things sometimes do with films."

By accepting the society's invitation, Mr Fellowes becomes president-elect and takes office next summer in the 80th anniversary year of Hardy's death.

Mike Nixon, the society's secretary, said: "We are thrilled to have such an internationally-known person as the president.

"Julian's involvement will reflect the esteem with which Hardy is still held across the world."

West Stafford House was the home of Mr Fellowes' great-great aunt, Gertrude Floyer. Hardy often visited and wrote about it in his short story, The Waiting Supper. The New Hardy Players have performed there.