Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), English poet, dramatist, and novelist, was born on the Egdon Heath in Dorset. He studied in Dorchester and apprenticed to an architect before leaving for London, where he began to write. Unable to find a public for his poetry, which idealized the rural life, he turned to the novel and met with success as well as controversy. The strong public reaction against some of his darker themes turned him back to writing verse. Today several of his novels are considered masterpieces of tragedy.
Nicolas Soames
is a former classical music and judo journalist. For the past eighteen years,
he has run Naxos AudioBooks, the award-winning label with a particular reputation for its spoken word recordings of literary classics from Homer and
Dante to James Joyce and Haruki Murakami.
Bruce Alexander (1932–2003) was the pseudonym for Bruce Cook, the well-known author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. When Alexander died in late 2003, he had completed most of Rules of Engagement, leaving behind notes on how the remainder of the story was to unfold. The novel has been completed by John Shannon and Alexander’s wife, Judith Aller.
Janet Maw has worked for many years in theater, television, and radio, making her screen debut as
Elizabeth Jane in the BBC TV series The
Mayor of Casterbridge followed by Eleanor Bold in The Barchester Chronicles. She has played the murderess Martha
Prebble in The Cater Street Hangman.
Numerous roles in theater have included Juliet at the Old Vic. More recently,
she has been a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company and is heard regularly on radio.
