‘Great Things - Hardy’s Hostelries’ Official Book Launch
Tuesday 28 July 2026 - 7pm - The King’s Arms Hotel, High East Street, Dorchester
Join us for the official book launch of ‘Great Things - Hardy’s Hostelries’ by Dr Tracy Hayes and Syd Braham in the beautiful and historic surroundings of The King’s Arms Hotel in Dorchester (which itself features in this new book).
About the Book
Hostelries, bars, inns and hotels play a pivotal role for Thomas Hardy’s characters throughout his novels, short stories and poems, from the iconic Peter’s Finger on Mixen Lane in The Mayor of Casterbridge to the Buck’s Head in Far From the Madding Crowd where Joseph Poorgrass suffers from ‘multiplying eye’.
This book is a celebration of Hardy’s pubs and their denizens, many still trading today.
In ‘Great Things’, two Thomas Hardy enthusiasts, Tracy Hayes and Syd Braham, have detailed all the pubs listed in Hardy’s works, identifying 50 named pubs ranging from Reading to Cornwall. Three quarters of these are still trading.
Tracy and Syd hope that the book will provide a guide for Hardy scholars, for readers for pleasure, and tourists to the South West to bring to life Hardy’s works.
‘A great adjunct to the Telegraph’s “Save our Pubs” campaign’ –
Peterborough, Daily Telegraph
About the Authors
Dr Tracy Hayes, former Secretary of the Thomas Hardy Society, is a researcher in Hardy studies and a firm believer in the therapeutic qualities of Wessex cider.
An avid reader of Hardy’s novels, Syd Braham enjoys the detailed descriptions of rural life in those times, when hostelries played such a major role in people’s lives.
