FOLLOW in the literary footsteps of Dorchester’s most famous son and some of his greatest literary characters this summer.

Hardy Country in Dorset is home to novelist Thomas Hardy’s birthplace and his later home, Max Gate.

Few authors have such strong associations with the natural and cultural heritage of their local area as Thomas Hardy.

His semi-fictional area ‘Wessex’ was inspired by the landscape surrounding Dorchester and has been the setting for lots of his novels, short stories and poetry.

The writer was born at Higher Bockhampton in a thatch cottage now known as Hardy’s Cottage in 1840, where he penned his early novels such as Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd.

He later designed Max Gate house in Alington Avenue, Dorchester where he lived from 1885 until his death in 1928.

Aspiring novelists can even write their own poem at the desk in Hardy’s study or help themselves to tea and cake in the old kitchen.

These two houses, along with Clouds Hill – home to Lawrence of Arabia, a close friend of Hardy – are open to visitors five days a week.

Max Gate will play host to a Victorian harvest fair on September 21 from noon to 5pm with fiddle music, story-telling, games and races plus craft activities for children.

Enthusiasts can see a blue plaque on the building now used by Barclays in South Street which was the inspiration for the home of the Mayor of Casterbridge.

The Kings Arms hotel and the former White Hart pub are other buildings that feature in his works, while some scenes from Far from the Madding Crowd were set at popular Maiden Castle.

A new adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd will be filmed this autumn with A list actress Carey Mulligan.