In 1924, the novelist Thomas Hardy was 84 years old. Married to a much younger woman (his second wife, 45-year-old Florence) he became infatuated with a beautiful 27-year-old actress called Gertrude Bulger, who was preparing to play the role of his most beloved character, Tess. Understandably, Florence was jealous. The situation was intense, foolish, messy and undignified. Yet, out of this emotional farrago, Nicholson has created a clear-eyed, kind and honest novel. Winter offers three perspectives – those of Hardy, Florence and Gertrude. For Hardy, Gertrude is magnificent, with “the kind of hair that in a former age might have adorned the head of a Cleopatra or a Helen of Troy”. For bitter, angry, hurting Florence, the young woman is merely “a butcher’s wife