[hardy-l] Dorsetshire Labours

[Richardson, Angelique]

Dear List members

A request (copied below) from the writer Jillian Abbot for historical knowledge of Dorset has come to me.  I think there are members of this list with the detailed knowledge of local history which Jillian seeks, and which surpasses mine – please could anyone wishing to assist Jillian reply directly to her at jillian_abbott at yahoo.com<mailto:jillian_abbott at yahoo.com>?  Many thanks.

Jillian, you may be interested in joining our list – we’d be delighted if you were! - details of how to do this are at http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/Welcome/welcomet.htm which will also provide details of how to join the Thomas Hardy Association, which has many resources which may be useful to you: it's governed by an international team of scholars: “All are members of its Council of Honorary VPs and Board of Directors. Together they maintain a website with over two dozen different departments focusing on Hardy's life and work while also providing numerous links to Hardy-related websites on the internet.”

You will, I think, be interested in Hardy's piece in Longman's  Magazine in 1883, 'The Dorsetshire Labourer’, available at, for example, http://www.thedorsetpage.com/genealogy/info/the_dorsetshire_labourer.htm

You may also be interested in Roger Lowman’s Thomas Hardy’s The Dorsetshire Labourer and Wessex (2005) – see, for example http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6297&pc=9
Incidently, what do other list members think of Lowman's book, which I have not yet read?

All good wishes

Angelique

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From: Jill Abbott [mailto:jillian_abbott at yahoo.com]
Sent: 28 December 2008 20:34
To: Rylance, Richard
Subject: Research help

Dear Professor Rylance,

After a quick look at the University of Exeter English Department academics' bios I found myself torn as to who among your staff would best be able to help me. I decided to write to you as Head of SALL (what is SALL?) in the hope that you might be willing to point me toward the correct person.

I'm an Australian writer living and working in New York. Many of my short stories have won awards in the US and Australia and my most recent fiction publication was in Queens Noir, and anthology of mystery fiction set in the New York City borough of Queens. I've worked as a full time journalist in NYC and have been published in The Washington Post, The Independent (UK) and many other such outlets. I have written a series of articles on writing for The Writer magazine in the US, one of which was reprinted in the Writers' Handbook 2005. In January my two-year term as Vice President of the Mystery Writers of America, New York chapter ends, but I will remain a board member for the next two years.

Following a reading from Queens Noir, I was approached by a friend's agent and asked if I could write an historical mystery set in Australia. Naturally I said yes, and when I began the work I discovered that my lead character was a young Dorset wife taken to the colony of Victoria in the 1860s by her officer husband. Her yearning to return home to Dorset forms a significant theme in the book and so I am in need of someone who can help me with questions about that era, in that region. I'm especially interested in the conventions of marriage and family, but also in practical silly little things that I just don't know (e.g. would an officer appointed by the Colonial Office and sent to Australia have paid for his commission? Would he receive a salary while there?).

While I understand that Exeter is in Devon, not Dorset, I'm aware of the University of Exeter's outstanding reputation, hence my reason for approaching you. I have never been to Dorset, or Exeter but I'm inclined not to question the muse and am always curious about places and the people who inhabit them.

I wonder if I should have approached the History Department, rather than the English Department, but as a writer my natural inclination is to start with people such as yourself.
 I hope this request is not too outrages and that there is someone in your department or acquaintance that may be willing to help me.

Thanks in advance for your consideration.

Kindest Regards,

Jillian Abbott
---


Dr Angelique Richardson
Senior Lecturer
Equality and Diversity Officer
Dept of English
Queen's Building
University of Exeter EX4 4QH
UK

Research Associate, EGenIS, ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society
www.centres.ex.ac.uk/egenis/<https://owa.ex.ac.uk/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>

Advisory Board, Centre for Medical History
http://www.centres.ex.ac.uk/medhist/<https://owa.ex.ac.uk/owa/UrlBlockedError.aspx>

A.Richardson at exeter.ac.uk<mailto:A.Richardson at exeter.ac.uk>
+ 44 (0) 1392 264 354
+ 44 (0) 1392 264 361 (fax)





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