London, 27 February. Alan Bates delighted a full house in the Purcell Room this evening with a handful of poems by Thomas Hardy, and excerpts from four novels: "Far from the Madding Crowd," "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," "Mayor of Casterbridge," and "The Trumpet Major."

From the programme: "This reading from Thomas Hardy's prose fiction and his poetry celebrates a writer whose books have remained steadily in demand. In the novels and tales he made the region he called Wessex his own. His knowledge of Dorset and the neighbouring counties was profound. The world of his forefathers was evoked by him with such vividness that it has survived to become part of our heritage. Increasingly he has been recognised as a major poet with an extraordinary range of skills, and a mastery that he retained into old age."

To the music of "Rejoice Ye Tenants of the Earth," wearing a double-breasted black suit, Bates entered the stage, set with period furniture: a Victorian chair upholstered in vivid yellow, and a small table containing a globe lamp and a carafe of water. Mostly standing but occasionally using the chair, he read from a bright red folder, specs perched on his nose, free hand waving to punctuate his words.

The audience listened closely, in complete silence broken only by gusts of laughter, bursts of applause, and the occasional sigh, as at the end of "Absent-Mindedness in a Parish Choir," in which a hapless band of players is banished from church by the Squire, "a wickedish man," who is affronted by an ill-timed error on the part of the musicians' leader. It's a delightful theatre-piece, and Bates reads it in dialect (as written), with immaculate timing. (You can hear it for yourself on his Thomas Hardy CD.)

After the one-hour reading, Bates greeted and signed copies of his CD for a long queue of visitors. (Many thanks to Carol Robinson for the photo above; the woman sitting with Alan at the table is the National Trust representative.)