Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet, was born on 2 June 1980, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. The eldest child of Thomas Hardy and Jemima Hand, Hardy had three younger siblings: Mary, Henry, and Katharine. Hardy learned to read at a very young age, and developed a fascination with the services he regular attended at Stinsford church. He also grew to love the music that accompanied church ritual. His father had once been a member of the Stinsford church musicians - the group Hardy later memorialised in Under the Greenwood Tree- and taught him to play the violin, with the pair occasionally performing together at local dance parties. Whilst attending the church services, Hardy developed a fascination for a skull which formed part of the Grey family monument.Whilst growing up, Hardy and his parents regularly attended the local church at Stinsford. He memorised the accompanying inscription (containing the name 'Angel', which he would later use in his novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles) so intently that he was still able to recite it well into old age. Read more