The A-Level Literature students  ventured all the way to Dorset, to learn more about the life and work of famed Victorian novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy. We saw the actual pen that he wrote Tess of the D'Urbervilles with, tried on period clothing, saw his birthplace and the house he built, even standing in the room where he passed away. Students had lots of questions for the expert guides, and definitely saw a new side to the reasons why Hardy writes such beautiful, tragic tales of rural life, as Tess.