Yesterday, a very kind man asked me to name three things recently that have brought me joy. I was a bit down in the dumps (to put it very, very mildly), it wasn’t an out of the blue question.

I paused.

“My son. My kids. They bring me joy. They’re so funny, if you just listen to them and their funny little ways, the questions they ask, the gratefulness for small things (sometimes), the kids, they laugh so much. They bring me joy.”

He nodded, and gestured for me to carry on.

“And… The day before yesterday I found a tiny white feather on the ground. My son spotted it and said it was a feather from Grandad. He said Grandad left it there for him so he would know he was still with him. He’s four. He’s lost a lot in his short life, he seems to have a…

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) wrote 14 novels, so picking a top ten won’t prove too difficult a task. What are the best Thomas Hardy novels? This is undoubtedly going to prove a difficult and controversial issue, but we thought we’d take this chance to select the ten we think are worth reading – and we’ve even ranked the novels in order (and the order, too, is bound to prove controversial). Do you agree with our ordering and general choices? We’ve included some interesting facts about the novels in each description of the novel.

10. Under the Greenwood Tree (1872). Hardy adopted an overtly pastoral title for this, his second published novel. His first, Desperate Remedies (1871), was an example of sensation fiction (a genre more usually identified with Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Wilkie Collins). It didn’t fare particularly well, so Hardy took the title of his next book from a song…

Il semble que les cirques aient d’abord été « en dur » avant de devenir itinérants. En Europe du moins. On pourrait voir là un rare exemple de sédentaires devenus nomades, mais non. C’est juste qu’avant, les artistes bougeaient sans emporter leurs chapiteaux, puisqu’il y en avait, prêts à les accueillir, un peu partout.

Le cirque de Reims. C’est l’un des derniers cirques en dur construit en 1865, celui-ci le fut par Narcisse Brunette et accueillait déjà maint spectacle comme de la boxe mais aussi des réunions publiques.

Restauré en 1984, il fut aménagé en 1990 pour devenir la salle multi-activités d’aujourd’hui.

Le cirque Jules Vernes d’Amiens

Le Cirque Jules-Verne est situé place Longueville à Amiens. Construit en 1889 par l’architecte Émile Ricquier, il portait le nom de Cirque municipal d’Amiens jusqu’en 2003.

Le Cirque Jules-Verne fait l’objet d’une inscription au titre des monuments historiques depuis le 29 octobre 1975 pour ses façades et toitures.

Le « Cirkus » de Copenhague

Construit entre 1885 et 1886…