Life and work of Thomas Hardy to be performed at Stonehenge

The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was fascinated by Stonehenge, using what he described as “the temple of the winds” both as a setting for one of his most striking scenes and as a lifelong inspiration, a pathway back into ancient times. In what is being billed as a unique performance, the life and work of Hardy is being showcased at the great stone circle in Wiltshire as part of Salisbury international arts festival. Lesser said A Beautiful Thread: Thomas Hardy in Words and Music was full of “love, life and laughter”, and said it meant he could say he had done a gig with “the Stones”, though not the rolling ones. It is believed to be the first time that a performance incorporating Hardy’s life and work has been staged at Stonehenge. Mark Chutter, the chair and academic director of the Thomas Hardy Society, said Stonehenge was very important to the writer “not just in terms of his understanding of the neolithic but also the pagan world as well.