大象传媒

David Owen Norris and guests listen to Thomas Hardy's favourite songs in the house he built for himself - Max Gate, in Dorset. Hardy's playlist is extraordinarily varied; it begins with music his violinist father played, and which he later used in one of the great novels.

We hear Hardy's favourite song as a young man about town, 'How Oft Louis', a song which obsessed him because he was in love with an unobtainable girl called Louisa. There is the now-forgotten opera version of 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', which Hardy thought was so good that he considered a career as a professional song-writer.

And there is the music he listened to with his friend Lawrence of Arabia, on a wind-up gramophone with a huge horn, the two men spending evenings together in a tiny attic room in Lawrence's house 'Cloud's Hill'.

Guests for this programme are Professor John Mullan, Professor Derek Scott, and Dr Jacqueline Dillion, a Hardy scholar who lives at Max Gate. They listen to the music and discuss what it reveals about Hardy's life.

Presenter David Owen Norris is a broadcaster, composer and concert pianist. He has arranged the songs, which are performed by Thomas Guthrie and jazz singer Gwyneth Herbert.

Producer: Elizabeth Burke
A Loftus Audio production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.