The DAILY TELEGRAPH – Thomas Hardy’s manuscripts have, in the words of the Telegraph, been “saved for the nation” – or, more specifically, for Wessex. What Wessex will do with them is anybody’s guess, but the newspaper’s account of how “a group of Hardy fans from Dorset set about finding the cash” to keep them around has a star in the middle of the tale:
One of the key campaigners was 104-year-old Norrie Woodhall, a member of the original Hardy Players and the last person alive who knew Hardy. In a 1924 adaptation of Tess Of The d’Urbervilles, Hardy personally cast Norrie as Tess’s sister Liza Lu. Norrie trod the boards again during an evening of performance of the author’s works as part of an event to raise money for the New Hardy Players Manuscript Fund. More money was raised through a charity auction, with one of the star lots being Tea with Norrie.
It would be nice to think that one could come to know Hardy by simply reading him. But then one would not necessarily know Norrie, and she seems worth getting to know. Really, Tea with Norrie has a best-selling Albomesque ring to it, no? (Read the story at The Daily Telegraph.)
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