WESSEX REVISITED: THOMAS HARDY AND JOHN COWPER POWYS Both Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys created a poetic Wessex landscape. Hardy"s Wessex has entered popular folklore and myth, and is used in the promotion of holidays, walks, tours, museums, hotels, even town councils. John Cowper Powys"s Wessex, explored in A Glastonbury Romance, Wolf Solent, Maiden Castle and Weymouth Sands, among other novels, is less well-known: a place of secret corners, mossy walls, ancient earthworks, Somerset wetlands and ferny hollows. Both writers are discussed thematically for their sense of nature, mythology, philosophy, painting, sensualism, labour, folklore and the family. D.H. Lawrence is referenced throughout as a bridge between Hardy and Powys. Finally Jeremy Robinson considers the film versions of Hardy"s novels. This is a valuable addition to the criticism of Hardy and Powys. John Cowper Powys is difficult to categorize. We place him (usually) in amongst...