The Latest Breaking News from Thomas Hardy

From candid memoirs to provocative essay collections, 2024’s forthcoming non-fiction is enticing. Jessie Thompson shares our guide to what you need on your reading pile

The author and film critic on the healing powers of Daniel Defoe, his love for Latin American literature and how he got Virginia Woolf wrong

The tenor’s gift for narrative transforms each of these songs by Britten and Schubert into a tiny drama, with elegant accompaniment from the pianist

The two friends take off Meryl Streep and read Thomas Hardy. Plus, more blood and gore at the Colosseum. Here’s what to watch this evening

Mel Giedroyc and Martin Clunes Explore Britain by the Book sees the actors showcase Dorset’s literary heritage.

The county’s people, landscapes and villages have provided material for generations of writers, prompting not only great literature but social reform

From Miami-inflected cool in Bournemouth to a coastal getaway with a Pig, here are the best spa hotels in Dorset

When OceanGate, the deep-sea exploration enterprise, created a promotional video for its ill-fated US$250,000-per-head trip to see the wreck of the Titanic, it told prospective passengers to “Get ready for what Jules Verne could only imagine – a 12,500-foot journey to the bottom of the sea.” Those behind the video…

Letter: In The Mayor of Casterbridge, he created a strong woman who gets a happy ending, writes Liz Bennett

Letter: Four decades of feminism topped off by #MeToo has laid bare The Mayor of Casterbridge’s back-to-front moral concerns, writes Matthew Pires

Research shows a staggering 56 per cent of orchards have been lost to date – with only 43,017 hectares remaining in Wales and England