New Face at Thomas Hardy's Max Gate

Jacqueline Dillion, the new caretaker, tenant and scholar-in-residence at Thomas Hardy's Max Gate.

Arkansas-raised Jacqueline, aged 28, is studying for her Phd on "Folklore in Thomas Hardy" at the University of St. Andrews. She featured in an article ("My Week") in yesterday's Sunday Times.

Called up to serve in the US Military, "we flew into Kuwait and then we moved up to Baghdad in a convoy of Humvees. The drive took three days and every single thing that could go wrong went wrong. Our radios failed, our GPs failed, our convoy got split up. We had to stop driving and, the moment we did, insurgents started shooting at us" (as told to Audrey Ward).

According to The Mail Online:

"Second year PhD student Jacqueline Dillion will be the new live-in custodian of the property. The Hardy scholar and former military intelligence specialist in the U.S. Army is also helping to restore the whole house to look like it would have done in Hardy's day".

“I kept a battered, dirty copy of Tess under the seat of the Humvee in Baghdad. I snuck it out when mortars were hitting,” said Ms Dillion, a former military intelligence specialist with 1st Cavalry Division (Mike Wade).

BBC News and Video

Changes at Max Gate

More information at Wade's World

Hardy properties in Dorset